Accountant General for the Federation (AGF), Mr. Shamsudeen Ogunjimi has given vivid account of why Federal Government directed Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to put on hold issuing of award letters of federal contracts to Contractors as well as delay in the payment of outstanding liabilities.
Mr. Ogunjimi gave the highlight on Thursday evening while responding to questions on the delayed payment of contractors, during a meeting held at the instance of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Procurement chaired by Hon. Unyime Idem.
He said: ‘I’m grateful for that opportunity to come back and represent our position on the observation that has been made. For non-payment of contractors, I also want to thank you for all the support you’ve been giving, because it’s one government.
‘I heard you saying that you’ll be interfacing with the contractors. And so, that is why I said this one government will appreciate that effort that the committee has been putting in for stabilizing the government and helping the government in that aspect.
‘I want to confirm to you that we have actually been paying contractors. Yes, we have been paying contractors. The only issue was the fact that, yes, we had, when I came on board, we observed that a portion or a section of the Procurement Act was not being followed. And so, we actually say that contract letter or award letter should not be issued until there is funds availability.
‘But we discovered that MDAs was awarding an issue of the Procurement Act. And so, we have issued award letters to contractors. Disregarding the other condition that funds might be available before, you can start your procurement processes.
‘But you have to stop at the point of awarding the contract award to, or issuing the contract award to contractors. You must ensure that there’s funds for the contractor to execute their projects. So, that created a lot of gap, which also created a lot of liabilities on the part of government, because we’re not matching expenditure with revenue.
‘But then, when we discovered that, at the point, we were running up to about three trillion liability commitments.’
Speaking earlier, Hon. Unyime Idem who presides over the session, disclosed that that the Committee had received series of petitions on cases of delayed and non-payments for jobs delivered over the past two years.
Hon. Idem said that the House had been interfacing with the protesting contractors to ensure calm while efforts were being made to secure payments.
‘The issue of non-payments of contractors funds for the past two to three years now; on a daily basis, as a Committee in charge of public procurement, we received petitions and then protest.
‘So, we use wisdom to manage them till today, if not, maybe by now, they would have burnt your office but it took the effort of the Committee and the leadership of the House to manage the anger and the protest on the side of the contractors.
‘So the House asked us to also find out why they delay and in some cases, non payments for the past two years,’ he said.
Hon. Idem also requested the Accountant General to, in seven days, provide documents to explain alleged infractions in contract award processes in the agency’s budget between 2023 2025.
Responding to the alleged infractions in the oAGF Appropriation Acts, Mr. Ogunjimi who was appointed in March, 2025, disclosed that all the Directors who were in office during the period under review had been posted out of oAGF.
He however assured that proper and official response to all issues raised in the 2023 to 2025 Appropriation Acts will be transmitted to the Committee within one week.