The Katsina State audit report for the 2023 fiscal year reveals that a former director of finance in the state has been accused of fraudulent withdrawals and transfers.
According to the document, Aliyu Abubakar who was a director of finance at the Katsina State independent electoral commission allegedly withdrew N511.8million cash, without the commission receiving value for the cash withdrawals.
He was said to have also transferred N34.4million without trace.
The issue was said to be pending with the state’s attorney general.
In a related development, it was reported that there was outstanding balance of N203,046,397.60 against former staff of the University who were sponsored for further studies on Bond.
“The Council attention is hereby drawn on the need to recover the outstanding amount against the 14No Staff and measures should be instituted to prevent reoccurrence thorough legal Department of the University or the Attorney General.” the audit report read.
According to the audit report, it was observed that a contract was awarded to Kaibo International Nigeria Limited on 27th April, 2016 at the Cost of N1,996,861,690.85 with the completion period of 18 months.
“The sum of N796,744,676.30 was the advance payment to the Company and the contract was bonded/guaranteed by Diamond/Access Bank plc, the company abandon site and fail to make reasonable progress of the project.”
“Due to the in ability by the Company to recover the advance payment the Auditor General directed the management of the ministry to write a letter to the bank for the recovery of the remaining advance payment N213,146,053.71.”
“As at the time of writing this report, the Diamond Bank has not remitted back the remaining Advance to the State Government account due the in ability to secure Approval from the Bank headquarters.” the report read.
There have been concerns on accountability and transparency in the spendings of states in the country.
