Secrets Reporters
Fresh documents obtained by SecretsReporters have revealed that the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, in Ondo State, recorded ₦793,395,419.77 in financial irregularities across ten findings during the 2023 financial year, a period when Dr. Liasu Adeagbo served as Chief Medical Director of the Centre.
At the heart of the findings is a sum of ₦158,660,531.00 tied to five capital payment vouchers paid to different contractors for work said to have been done. When the Centre’s records were examined, the paid vouchers, the Bills of Quantities, and the valuation certificates raised by the engineer to support the payments all showed alterations. This runs directly against Paragraph 610 of the Financial Regulations 2009, which forbids any change to a voucher’s amount, whether in words or figures, without a fresh voucher or the full signature of the certifying officer. When those reviewing the books asked why the vouchers had been altered, management gave no answer. The response to that particular finding is recorded simply as “No response.”
The records show that ₦200,171,360.98 was paid out with no paid vouchers on file at all. Another ₦98,922,000.00 was tied to irregularities in how cleaning and security services contracts were awarded. A further ₦81,091,893.20 in personnel and overhead funds was misapplied.
The documents also show that ₦79,090,585.00 was paid across sixty-three vouchers that had been raised more than three months earlier and paid without the revalidation that Paragraph 611 of the Financial Regulations 2009 requires once that window has passed. Some of those payments came from Internally Generated Revenue that was never budgeted for in the Centre’s Revenue Budget.
In addition, ₦54,057,922.15 in internally generated revenue was under-remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. ₦44,720,000.00 was spent on ICT facilities without the mandatory clearance of the National Information Technology Development Agency. ₦42,270,923.16 in salary was irregularly paid to officers on study leave without approval. ₦28,403,270.07 in non-personal advances was granted above the statutory limit. And ₦6,006,934.21 in payments violated the Federal Government’s e-payment policy.
