Looting Pipeline: N23 Million Furniture, Construction Bills Paid into Staff’s Private Account Hidden in Finance Ministry Maintenance Contract

NewsNGR

A facility-maintenance contractor at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning was paid more than ₦23 million for office furniture and construction work that was quietly folded into a routine maintenance deal, according to fresh findings from the Auditor-General for the Federation.

The payments ₦4,114,025.00 for a sofa set, coffee table and freight, and ₦18,969,169.97 for construction works were processed as “reimbursable expenses” under an existing maintenance contract rather than being put out for competitive bidding as separate procurements.

The combined sum, ₦23,083,194.97, was paid into the private bank account of a Ministry staff member, not the contractor’s corporate account.

The transaction was flagged in the 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses, which auditors transmitted to the National Assembly in July 2026. The report does not specify the calendar year in which the payments were made, and no minister or permanent secretary is named in connection with the finding. The Ministry has been led by several officials during the period covered by recent audit cycles, but the audit document itself does not identify which leadership tenure the transaction fell under.

The contractor, Oviswift Engineering Ltd formerly known as Annai Ltd held a maintenance contract with the Ministry valued at ₦35,270,072.26. Management, in its response to the query, argued that the contract contained a reimbursable clause allowing up to ₦1,000,000.00 per month, which it said justified the payments.

Auditors rejected that logic. The Public Procurement Manual of 2009 and the Financial Regulations of 2009 require that goods and works of this nature be procured through open competitive processes, not smuggled through a maintenance line item. The risks identified in the report are blunt: diversion of public funds, circumvention of procurement due process, and misapplication of funds.

The Ministry said it has since set up a four-man standing committee to scrutinise all oversight claims before any further payment is released.

For Nigerians watching the recurring cycle of audit queries that seldom produce consequences, the case follows a familiar pattern. The Auditor-General’s reports routinely document procurement breaches, unretired advances and payments into private accounts, yet public accounts committees often take years to consider them by which time officials have moved on and files have gone cold.

Whether the new standing committee at the Finance Ministry changes that trajectory, or merely adds another layer of paperwork to a payment already made, remains to be seen.

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