Former Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda has been asked to account
for what happened to N213billion state money during his administration.
This
follows the report of a high-powered committee commissioned by the
Bauchi State government with the mandate to do forensic audit of all
major contracts awarded by the past administration from June 2007 to May
2015.
The committee, after investigation into the activities of
Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board, Ministries of Local
Government Affairs, Bauchi Specialists Hospital and other MDAs during
the period Yuguda was in power, requested the former Governor to account
for over N212bn.
The Chairman of the committee, Salihu Abubakar,
who stated this when he addressed newsmen at a press conference after
presenting the committee’s report to Governor Mohammed Abubakar on
Friday, revealed that most of the major contracts awarded by the past
government in all the MDAs investigated were uncompleted with many of
them not even executed at all, regardless that payments had been made
for their completion.
He further stated that some of the “projects
were over-inflated, poorly executed, some without due process, and in
some cases “contractors were overpaid without any acceptable reason or
explanation.”
Abubakar
added that they discovered in their investigation of the period under
review that huge payments were made in the Ministry for Local Government
Affairs without appropriate payments vouchers presented.
He said,
“On several unjustified cash withdrawals made from the accounts of the
Ministry for Local Government Affairs by the Cashier to JAAC Account,
the committee recommended that former commissioners in the Ministry for
Local Government Affairs, Idris Halilu and Abubakar Faggo, retired
Permanent Secretaries, and others are to account for N3.5bn.
“The
committee recommended that all former commissioners be asked to account
for N96bn, while Special Advisers, Permanent Secretaries, Internal
Auditors, Cashiers, Directors of Finance in the Ministry and visiting
Auditors to the Ministry be made to account for N8bn.
“Similarly,
the Committee wants N88.2bn, being amount illegally remitted from the
Ministry of Local Government Affairs from its Federation Account
Allocations to various MDAs from June 2007 to May 2015 to be recovered
from former Governor Isa Yuguda, all former commissioners for Local
Government Affairs, all Permanent Secretaries and all former Special
Advisers in the Ministry, all former Accountants General or their
representatives,” Abubakar said.
