Imo Govt Vows To Recover N12.3Bn Unaccounted ISOPADEC Fund

A forensic audit report has revealed that N12.3B cannot be accounted for in the financial records of Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (ISOPADEC) just as it shows there are no projects to show for over N10B said to have been used for execution of projects. 

The interim forensic audit report which our correspondent obtained, was carried out by Corporate Dev.& Assets Mgt Ltd (CADAM-ANE), and was commissioned by the Imo State Government.

The report also recommended that the State Government should take steps for the immediate recovery of the missing N12.272Bn.

Imo State Commissioner for information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, confirmed that the Government will leave no stone unturned in its efforts to recover the money. He also said all those behind the unexecuted contracts will be held accountable.

A breakdown of some of the findings of the audit report which covers the period 2007 to May 2020, shows that out of a total sum of N3.5Bn of unexplained expenditure or online transfers of ISOPADEC funds to sundry PAYEES from inception in 2007   to January 2020, N647M was spent between 2007 and May 2019, while the balance of almost N3Bn was spent between June 2019 and January 2020
Further shocking details are that while only 44 transactions under the sub head of unexplained expenditure and online transfers were carried out in 12 years (2007 to 2018) 88 of such illegal transactions were carried out in less than 8 months (June 2019 to January 2020).

The report also showed that the overall expenditure profile of ISOPADEC within the period under review witnessed an unprecedented high in seven months than in any single year in 12 years. In 2008, the Commission spent N3.1Bn, N1.7 in 2009, N1.4 in both 2012 and 2013 and N1B in 2017. The rest years from 2007 to 2018 were less than a billion Naira. But between June 2019 to January 2020 alone, less than 8 months, the commission spent N3.3Bn.

The report also showed that huge sums of money were pay to contractors without following due process in direct violation of extant laws, huge serial on line transfers were also made to either unknown or unidentified recipients.

It further shows that payments to contractors were made without any guaranteed APG or certificates earned and that there was no project history, tender records or evidence of approvals from the board as well as lack of adherence to existing protocols on award of contract above N1M.

The report gave a breakdown of the unaccounted N12.272B as comprising of N9.611B from statutory allocation, Miscellaneous inflows of N2.203B, N410.721M deductions and N48.1M gifts to staff.