Public payments tracking portal, Govspend, has revealed that a sum of over N55 million was paid into the account of one Unoh Omolara, for the sendforth party of Udo Okonkwo Ekanem.
A review of the data showed that the payment was made by the Federal Ministry of Finance to a private account in contravention of laws guiding the civil service.
Chapter Seven, Section 713 of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009 states that “Personal money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private account.”
Okonkwo served as the permanent secretary and special duties of the ministry.
The payment for the party was made on September 13th, 2024.
A further look into the payment description revealed that the event was scheduled to be held at Transcorp Hilton Hotels on September 6th, 2024.
The event was confirmed by the Ministry of Finance on its website.
The ministry had noted that it celebrated the Ekanem in appreciation of his outstanding commitment.
It was discovered that the money spent on the send-forth was twice the amount spent to set up 28 boreholes in Jigawa State.
According to details on the Govspend website, N28.3 million was spent on drilling 23 solar-powered boreholes and five numbers hand pump boreholes in Jigawa State.
This would mean that this money spent on sendforth, half of it would have provided same number of solar-powered boreholes and hand pumps in other locations of the country.
The extravagant spending of public funds is coming amid concerns over prudence in the management of government resources by different ministries’ department and agencies.
