Senate queries Ilorin Teaching Hospital of N167m of fraud

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Senate has queried University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) over alleged fraud of  N167 million.

 

The Senate Public Accounts Committee chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide relied on the 2016 Auditor General’s report to query mismanagement of public by the Teaching Hospital in the Kwara state.

 

The query uncovered how the teaching Hospital paid N63 million into the accounts of their officers to carry out procurement related activities and according to relevant guidelines it must not be N200,000.

 

 

Also in another query considered by the Committee on University Teaching Hospital, it was discovered that payment vouchers totaling N94 million were not supported with relevant documents.

 

The query reads, ” A  total  of  N63,995,618.00  (Sixty-three  million,  nine  hundred  and  ninety-five thousand,  six  hundred  and  eighteen  naira)  was  paid  to  officers  to  carry  out procurement-related  activities,  in  excess  of  the  approved  limit  of  N200,000.00.

 

 

“Considering  the  amounts  involved,  relevant  due  process  should  have  been  followed  by issuing  Local  Purchase  Order  or  Job  Order  to  contactors.

 

 

“The  Management  did  not  take into  cognizance  the  provision  of  Circular  No.  TRY/A2  &B2/2009  of  24th  March,  2009 which  states  that  “All  Accounting  Officers  and  Officers  controlling  expenditure  are  to ensure  that  all  local  procurement  of  stores  and  services  costing  above  N200,000.00 shall be made only through  award of  contract”. Responding,  the  Chief  Medical  Director  craved  my  understanding  that  the  nature of  the  hospital‟s  operation  may  not  permit  strict  compliance  with  the  threshold, especially in  emergency cases involving  life.

 

” Nevertheless,  several  cases  of  abuse  of  internal  controls  were  observed.    For instance,  the  use  of  staff  to  purchase  13  laptop  computers  for  N1,690,000.00  (One million,  six  hundred  and  ninety  thousand  naira)  and  the  printing  of  206  LPO  Booklets and  800  Receipt  booklets  for  N350,000.00  (Three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  naira) cannot  be  regarded  as  emergency.    Besides,  some  of  the  documents  presented  to support  the  response  appear  not  to  be  genuine,  an  indication  that  these  expenditures were not  incurred in  the interest  of  government.

 

 

“The  Chief  Medical  Director  was  requested  to  provide  authentic  documents  to justify these expenditures or  recover the amounts  involved from the payees.

 

 

“Payment  vouchers  for  amounts  totaling  N94,061,869.55  (Ninety-four  million, sixty-one  thousand,  eight  hundred  and  sixty-nine  naira,  fifty-five  kobo)  were  not adequately  supported  with  relevant  documents  such  as  evidence  of  expenditure, request  memos,  Store  Receipt  Vouchers  etc  to  authenticate  the  payments  made.

 

“The practice  is  contrary  to  Financial  Regulation  603(i).    It  was  therefore  difficult  to  accept  the payments as  legitimate charges against  public funds.

 

 

“The  Chief  Medical  Director  was  asked  to  provide  explanations  for  the  above stated  violation  and  produce the relevant  documents  for  further audit verification. Responding,  the  Chief  Medical  Director  asserted  that  the  Accounting  system  in place  at  the  hospital  does  not  allow  any  payment  to  be  made  without  all  relevant documents  attached.

 

 

“However,  he  still  did  not  produce  the  documents  for  my inspection.    He  was  asked  to  kindly  produce  the  documents  for  my  scrutiny,  otherwise, the  expenditures  totalling  N94,061,869.55  (Ninety-four  million,  sixty-one  thousand,  eight hundred  and  sixty-nine  naira,  fifty-five  kobo)  will  not  be  accepted  as  legitimate  charges against  public funds.

 

 

“The  Management  of  the  University  of  Ilorin  Teaching  Hospital  could  not  produce the  monthly,  quarterly  and  half  yearly  Internal  Audit  reports  for  2015,  despite  persistent demand  for  the  records.

 

 

“The  report  provided  by  the  Internal  Audit  Unit  was  a  scanty yearly  report.  Financial  Regulation  1706  requires  that  “the  Internal  Auditor  shall  prepare and  produce  monthly,  quarterly  and  half  yearly  reports  to  the  Accounting  Officer  on  the progress of  the audit  with  copies  to the Accountant-General and  the Auditor-General”.

 

 

“It is  the  responsibility  of  the  Chief  Executive  Officer  to  ensure  that  a  functional  Internal Audit  unit  is  in  place  as  the  Unit  is  critical  to  the  internal  control  processes  of  any organization.   The  Chief  Medical  Director  was  asked  to  forward  future  Internal  Audit  Reports  to my  Office, as required  by the Regulations. In  his  response  dated  25th  April,  2017,  the  Chief  Medical  Director  promised  to ensure  compliance  with  the  regulations.

 

”  However,  the  Internal  Audit  Reports  have  not been  received,  even  up  until  the  time  of  finalizing  this  report.    He  should  comply  with  the provision of  the Financial Regulation. ”

 

But, Chief Medical Director (CMD), University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Professor Abdullahi Yussuf, who was appointed in 2018 was unable to give convince reason for the mismanagement of the fund before the Senate Panel.

 

 

He told the Committee that since the time as CMD of the Hospital things have changed .