This is the story of how a whopping 10 Million Naira was blown by the officials of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources on renovating the minister's waiting room.
Curiously, the official file for the contract, said to have been initiated shortly before former President Goodluck Jonathan left office is missing, thus fuelling suspicion among junior and intermediate civil servants that the project was a smoke screen to loot the ministry of the needed funds to carry out its statutory mandate.
Payment for the renovation was approved by the then Permanent Secretary, Mr Istifanus Musa Fuktur in July, 2015. A source in the ministry, however disclosed that the approval of the contract sum of N9,920,000 was in order, as the Permanent Secretary has an approving power of N10million.
A breakdown of the contract revealed that one million Naira was used to demarcate a fraction of the waiting room which will be used to house server and inverter.Two million Naira was allegedly spent to buy visitor's chairs,N1,900,000.00 was spent to buy two LG and Samsung (36" and 40") television sets including a CCTV Camera, N180,000 to replace a 2"X2" centre rug, N450,000to replace standing AC, N1.8million to provide additional inverter for the waiting room, N130,000 for the provision of two flower vase, N915,000.00 for POP "shredding and reconnish" in the 10x6 ft waiting room.
In addition, N850,000.00 was spent on walls, N60,000 to replace two aluminum windows, N50,000.00 to replace ceiling lighting points,N180,000.00 replacement of centre rug in minister's office and N35,000.00 to was and clean the tiles in the minister's office and waiting room.
Our investigations revealed that a Samsung 40"LED costs N79,990 while an LG 36"television costs N48,000. A Sales Manager with Gracetech Group, a Telecom, Power and Security outfit, Ms O. Bidemi said the cheapest CCTV Camera in her company sells for N15,000.00 while the most expensive goes for N35,000.00
But Mr. Omokhudu Ebers Peters ,Director, General Services in the ministry while reacting to the issue said senior civil servants in the ministry cannot be blamed for the seemingly exorbitant prices , stressing that it passed through Ministerial Tenders Board and Procurement procedures. Reacting to the quality of the chairs bought for N2million, the Director said what was important was whether the job was done or not.
A source in the ministry said investigators from one of the anti- graft agencies visited the ministry last week to speak with the Permanent Secretary on the issue. But, Director , Press Affairs in the ministry Mrs Oyeboade Akinola said she was not aware of any visit by any anti corruption agency . She said the Permanent Secretary in the ministry had directed that the file which the agitated staff claimed was missing should be fetched out stressing that a complete set of the contract document had been located in one of the offices.
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