NIMC in N3.5bn mismanagement scandal

Investigation by National Daily has revealed that the Nigerian Identity Management Commission, NIMC, is in trouble once again. This time, the commission is enmeshed in fund mismanagement scandal. The money involved is said to be in tune of N3,451 billion which the Auditor General of the federation said he has already queried the Director General of the Commission.

National Daily gathered that the DG is expected to provide answers to why NIMC spent such humongous amount in 2015 without recourse to due process.

However, when contacted by our correspondent the DG of NIMC, Engr Aliyu Aziz, admitted that he received a query from the Auditor General but said he had replied the query and copied the two houses of the National Assembly. He added that although the alleged infractions happened before he became the DG of the commission, that he would take responsibility since upon appointment, he inherited assets and liabilities.

He, however, refuted the claims of the audited report saying that most of the figures highlighted by the report may have been bloated. The controversial expenditure was captured in the programmes and performance audit of the Commission as contained in the annual report of the Auditor-General of the  Federation on the account of Nigeria for the year ended December 2015.

The auditor general’s report indicated that the performance of the commission in the various expenditures for the year showed a clear violation of the Public Procurement Act with regards to section 85(2) and (5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended. According to the report, during the audit examination of the accounting records and books of NIMC, it was observed that a contract for the deployment of VSAT to local government areas was awarded to a company in the sum of N16, 500,000 in August 2014 and 100 percent down payment was made to the company on March 31, 2014, five months before the award of contract, contrary to extant regulations.

Also it was revealed that a certain contractor was engaged by the NIMC to supply, install and maintain 19 pieces of garret PD65001 walk-through metal detector at a sum of N48,944,000 through a letter referenced NIMC/LS/VGSNL/12/12 and dated November 28, 2012, which translated to N2,576,000 per detector, with no completion period stated. It added that examination of payment vouchers showed that N48, 944,000 was paid to the contractor in instalments of 15 percent, 42.5 percent and 42.5 percent and the approval note, APG backing the initial 15 percent was not sighted in all the documents produced for audit verification among others.

On April 9, 2013 the Commission was accused of having awarded a contract for the supply of 600 units of HP Flatbed scanners to a company at a price of N12,109,091 through a letter referenced with no completion period and examination of payment vouchers showed that the total contract sum was paid to the contractor in instalments of 15 percent and 85 percent, with the APG backing the initial 15 percent not seen in all the documents produced for audit verification.

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National Daily also gathered that the NIMC is said to have engaged a consultant to conduct market study on the smart card industry in Nigeria at a price of N22,629,280 with no completion period and examination of payment vouchers revealed that the total contract sum was paid to the consultant beginning with the initial 15 percent payment at inception while the second and third payments were made on an alleged second draft report.

Also, the Auditor General’s report observed that a media vendor was engaged as an agent by the Commission on the strength of a mere memo written by a staff to the DG/CEO on June 10, 2014 to provide newspaper/magazine campaign for the Commission at a price of N21,901,542 per annum. According to the audit report, this job was not advertised, approved or ratified by the Tenders Board and Procurement Planning Committee of the Commission.

It was also observed that the same memo that initiated the award of the job was the same that sought for the initial payment of 25 percent or N5,475,385.50 as mobilization and the DG/CEO’s minutes approved it without recourse to the Tenders Board, indicating that the contract was single-handedly awarded by the DG, contrary to the Procurement Act 2007.

Other contracts in which the audit observed bridge of extant rules include: The payment of N5, 475,385.50 vide P.V. No. NIMC/06/1223/OH/14 as 25 percent mobilization without an APG; engagement of a contractor by the NIMC to provide Affina enterprise smartcard life cycle management system, a software at a contract price of $1,408,750 (N239,487,500) at an exchange rate of N170/dollar. There was also no evidence of receipt of the software and delivery before payments, which was the yardstick for the payment.

The report further disclosed that a consultant was engaged by the NIMC to provide eight modules licenses for the NIMC Enterprise monitoring in 2014 at a price of $104,895 (N16, 943,040) with a memo from a staff to the DG/CEO on the same day of award of contract that sought for a 100 percent payment of the contract sum and the DG/CEO minutes approved the memo without asking for evidence of performance or a covering bond. In the same vein, a vendor was engaged by the NIMC to provide tripwire via security information and event monitoring tools (SIEM) and SCM License fees, implementation training, first year support and maintenance without the provision of the award letter for the job for audit verification.

It was also indicated that two different memos were written by a member of staff to the DG/CEO on March 6 and 7, 2014 seeking for payment of 15 percent and 65 percent of the contract sum amounting to N23, 591,969. In similar manner, the DG/CEO in his minutes approved this payment without evidence of performance or Advance Payment Guarantee (APG) to safe guard public funds, which negates the provisions of Public Procurement Act 2007.

In addition, a contractor was engaged by the NIMC to supply 950 units of WASD WD 14500 2D BARCODE scanners at a price of N91,433,636.70 in April, 2013 with no completion period indicated; a contractor was engaged by the NIMC to supply 950 units of Logitech 920 1080P Webcam at a contract price of N26,578,150 in August, 2013 with payment vouchers that showed that N26,578,150 was paid to the contractor in instalments of 15 percent and 85 percent without APG; just as the commission was also accused of engaging another consultant to conduct system review of the NIMC in January, 2014 at a contract price of N21,000,000 with no completion period indicated. The Auditor General said that these infractions among other irregular expenditures observed in the course of the audit exercise, warranted a directive that the NIMC DG must ensure adequate internal controls in the Account Section of the Commission.