Governor Bala Mohammed-led Bauchi State government has spent N16billion on renovation of the government house according to a review of the Bauchi State audited report for 2023.
The money was spent in the fiscal year of 2023.
According to the auditors’ report, the state government awarded the contract for upgrading of government house at the cost of N6.6billion to M/S Architectronix limited .
The audit report however noted that there was a contract variation of N9.5billion bringing the total contract sum to N16.1billion.
Contract variation occurs when two parties agree to carry out a contract different from the ways they have originally planned.
Simply put, it is a change to the original terms and conditions of a contract.
The report further noted that a bill of quantity for the procurement of two project vehicles were awarded at the cost of N46.2 million, however only one of the vehicles were bought.
It was further revealed that a sum of N23.1million was non-accounted for.
The revelations by the audit report of Bauchi state however negated what the state reported in its budget performance report for the fourth quarter of 2023, which represented January to December of the year.
According to the budget performance document, renovation and expansion of government house in Bauchi was approved for N6 billion and at the end of the year, the sum of N6 billion was spent already, representing 100% budget performance.
Going by the details of the budget performance report, the government reported that it approved N6 billion for the expansion and renovation of government house, while the audit report shows that N6.6 billion was actually awarded.
While the government noted that only N6 billion was spent at the end of the year, the audit report shows that N16 billion was spent, showing that the state failed to report the extra N10 billion spent in the report it dished in its budget performance.
According to details on the audit report, the state also failed to account for N23.1 million for one project vehicle it failed to buy.
This development comes amid calls for transparency and accountability in the management of government funds.
While Bauchi State spent N16billion on upgrading the government house, its internally generated revenue for same period of 2023, stood at N34.2 billion, meaning the state spent about 50% of its internally generated revenue in 2023 on upgrading the government house.