Senate indicts FMB for unrecovered loans, irregular award of contract of N4.5bn

ADEKUNLE ADESUJI, Abuja

Senate has indicted Officials of Federal Mortgage Bank for non- recovery of loans and irregular award of contract of N4.5 billion.

The indictment was sequel to the report of Senate Public Accounts Committee Chaired by Senator Mathew Uhroghide after consideration of 2018 report of Auditor General of the Federation.

The breakdown of the mismanaged fund showed that the Management of the Bank irregularly awarded N3.04bn contracts , while the bank failed to recover N70 million trapped in a defunct bank.

In addition, the bank failed to recover areas and outstanding balances of loans trapped in primary mortgage bank and Micro Finance bank which is about N1.3 billion.

The bank also failed to recover N79 million loan granted to former Officers of the bank and non recovery of loan granted to former directors which is about N65 million.

The query reads, Contract awarded to a contractor in four places at a total sum of N3.0 billion. The 2nd , 3rd and 4 ty phases of the contract were above the approved threshold of the bank .

” It was observed that the contractor was overpaid in the sun of N118 million that resulted from irregular addition of 5 percent WHT in the bill of quantity on each of the four phases of the contract ”

The agency in its response said the contractors have been engaged on issues raised by the Auditor General and settlement agreement has been entered into for refund.

The Committee therefore ordered the Federal mortgage bank to account for sum of N3.0 billion contracts that were irregularly awarded.

Another query reads, ” The sum of N1.3 billion granted as loans to six primary mortgage bank and a micro finance bank, remained outstanding as at the time of audit in 2017.”

The agency in its response said that the loans have already been referred to Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to assist in the recovery of the funds ”

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