The federal government of Nigeria under the direction of the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has directed the anti-graft agency to commence a detailed probe on the activities of the Federal Ministry of Education dating back from 2007 when Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu was the federal minister of education and Agada Anthony Jerry served as the minister of state [1] and Mrs Aishatu Jibril Dukku served as the minister of state [2].
The directive by President Goodluck Jonathan instructed for an audit of Ministries to include the Departments and Agencies. On the priority list to be investigated in the the federal Ministry of Education include, the National Commission for Colleges of Education, the University of Abuja, the Federal University of Technology Minna, the Education Trust Fund, and the National Universities Commission.
According to information available to 247ureports.com, the ICPC was directly charged with the task of auditing the ministry. And as gathered, the Commission has mapped out a system review template for the examination of the due process procedures adopted by agencies in the award of contracts – entailing inquiries into budgetary provision, advertisement of tender and composition of the tenders board as well as the tender analysis and selection of bidders.
The anti graft commission, in its investigatory task, will establish approval limits and the appropriation act for each of the agencies being investigated. It will study the actual expenditures. The legal status of contractors and ownership of companies will be investigated, as well as evidence of payment of tax and audited accounts of companies.
According to the Commission, they are concerned about contracts awarded over and above the benchmark and others awarded without cash backing, particularly with the authority to incur expenditure (AIE) and the enabling act of each entity as it relates to internally generated revenue (IGR). In addition multiple awards of contracts to a single company, insider trading and abandoned projects will be investigated. Also project monitoring and evaluation reports, certificates of completion, along with physical inspection of projects executed will be carried out by the agents of the ICPC. The contract agreements of each entity will be inspected while all contract documents will be traced to their origin.
At the end of the exercise the Commission will forward its findings to the President; and will prosecute any Chief Executive Officer that breaches the ICPC Act.
