The House of Representatives on Monday directed the Federal Ministry of Transportation to recover and remit ₦33,563,469.10 spent on unauthorised foreign trips to the Federal Government’s treasury.
The resolution was passed by the House Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Rep. Bamidele Salam, during an investigative hearing on the 2021 Auditor-General’s report.
The audit revealed that three officials from the Federal Ministry of Transportation were paid a total of $3,000 in contingency allowances for trips to Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, Greece, and France without the necessary approvals or documentation showing how the funds were utilised.
This action forms part of broader financial irregularities uncovered in the ministry’s accounts, as the audit report raised five major queries against the Ministry of Transportation.
These include: failure to provide records for personnel cost expenditures totalling ₦1,089,848,974; irregular transfers of ₦400,177,312 to the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM); and unsubstantiated payments for training programmes totalling ₦93,539,100.
Other irregularities include unauthorised international travel expenses of ₦68,591,119 and the award of contracts worth ₦11,120,000 without due procurement processes.
The resolution was passed following the adoption of a motion sponsored by Hon. Olusola Fatoba, who underscored the need to ensure immediate refunds of the ₦33,563,469.10 paid as Estacode, visa processing, airfare without necessary approval, and proof of how the contingency allowance of $3,000 was utilised.
In a related development, the lawmakers also queried a payment of ₦11.120 million to the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT) for the training of 78 ministry personnel.
It was discovered that three separate payments—₦1.260 million, ₦3.060 million, and ₦2.700 million—were made without deductions for Value Added Tax (VAT), Withholding Tax (WHT), or Stamp Duties, causing a loss of ₦947,700 in public revenue.
Responding to the audit query, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, who was represented by the Director of Finance, Charles Metule, admitted the oversight and promised that the ministry would deduct the appropriate taxes from future transactions and remit them to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
To this end, the committee requested the immediate recovery and remittance of the ₦11.120 million to the federal treasury.
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