Audit Report Uncovers N167.5M Fraud At FMC Owo
The report of an audit carried out by the Office of Auditor-General for the Federation has indicted the management of the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo State of mismanaging a sum N167.5 million.
The audit, carried out in 2020, revealed that development contravened the Financial Regulations (FR) (2009) in handling the funds the institution generated internally and those allocated to it by the government.
Auditor-General for the Federation, Adolphus Aghughu, signed the report titled, “Auditor-General for the Federation’s Annual Report on Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses Issues in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government of Nigeria for the Year Ended December 31 2019”.
The same audit report had also indicted the management of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) of mismanaging an approximate sum of N515 million.
Following the discovery, the Auditor-General for the Federation has ordered the management of the FMC, Owo to explain before relevant authorities the reason(s) for infractions and return the said sum to the government treasury or face sanctions.
According to the report, some of the infringements include award of contracts above the approval threshold of the Chief Medical Director; non-deduction of one per cent stamp duty from contractors; unretired personal advances; payment without relevant supporting documents and refusal to remit Internally Generated Revenues (IGRs).
Others are: a violation of government e-payment policy, refusal to take items on store ledger charge, non-retirement of cash advances, and direct procurement without the approval of the Bureau of Public Procurement.
Specifically, the audit report, among others, indicted FMC Owo of non-remittance of 25 per cent of its IGR, amounting to N11.5 million.
It noted that the hospital generated N46.3 million in 2019 as non-revolving IGR, adding however that there was no evidence of remittance of 25 per cent of the IGR, as required by the extant laws.
The report also discovered that the FMC, Owo paid a 15 per cent mobilisation fee, totalling N21.3 million, without submitting an Advance Payment Guarantee (APG) by benefitting contractors.
According to the audit report, in 2019, three contractors got N21.3 million from the institution for various projects but the management of the FMC, Owo failed to submit the APG.
The audit report also indicted the hospital management of approving contracts above the threshold of the Chief Medical Director (CMD), to the tune of N120.9 million, in 2019.
The report observed that the CMD solely approved the award of contracts (amounting to N120.9 million), same year, without recourse to the Tender’s Board saddled the authority for approval as required by extant regulations.
“The institution also failed to deduct N2.2 million as one per cent stamp duty from its contractors, being the amount from the N225.8 million paid to contractors for various contracts,” the report stated.
Besides, the audit report also noted that the management of FMC, Owo did not retire personal advances, totalling N11.4 million.
“There was no evidence to show that the amount was retired as at the time of audit in February 2020, contrary to extant regulations, and there were cases of multiple personal advances without retiring previous advances granted to some of the staff,” the report stated.
The audit report also accused the hospital management of making N5.2 million payments for contracts without relevant supporting documents.
