Science Ministry settled N2m debt with N17m vehicles – Senate

Senate Committee on Public Accounts has uncovered how the Ministry of Science and Technology “gave out two vehicles worth N17m to pay N2m debt it owed contractors.

The Auditor-General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine, had, in a report submitted to the Senate, queried the ministry over the disappearance of two official vehicles with registration M50-10FG and MGO-12FG.

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According to the report, during the verification of non-recurrent assets of the ministry, it was discovered that the two vehicles were not seen and their whereabouts was not explained.

Responding, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Edet Akpan, explained that the vehicles were seized by a court as result of debt the ministry owed contractors.

But the chairman of the committee, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, rejected Akpan’s explanation, saying there was no evidence that the vehicles were given to the contractors through court order.