A report from the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation has revealed that payments upto N11,700, 000 were made by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, for ‘familiarisation visits’ to unnamed skill acquisition centres in selected states in 2015 by the minister and staff members, Premium Times reports.

According to the news medium, part of the money were spent on November 11, 2015, when the minister was sworn-in.

The report contains accounting records of ministries, departments and other agencies of government.

According to the report, an “audit investigation established that the purported acclaimed appraisal visits to skill acquisition centres were never undertaken.”

It observed that “all the attached receipts for fuelling did not indicate quantity in litres, the rate per litre, dates of purchase and vehicle number of the fuelled vehicles.

”The International hotel receipt of 23/11/15 which was issued for the hiring of a mini-bus from a hotel to unnamed project sites rendered the receipts doubtful.

“Hiring of cars to Project Sites at ridiculous rates of between N75,000.00 and N77,000.00 for two days as appeared on receipts numbers 910 of 22/11/15, 107 of 24/11/15, 0416 of 27/11/15, 531 of 25/11/15, is contrary to exercise of the due economy in line with the provision of Financial Regulation 415.”

It further disclsoed that ”Receipt number 5206 of 11/11/2015, the date the Minister was sworn in by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and receipt number 11622 of 8th of November, 2015 with amount N100,000.00 respectively are not clear.

“The two receipts were for servicing of a vehicle two times within 3 days,’’ the report noted.

The Auditor-General has reportedly mandated the ministry to refund the N11,700,000 to the federation account.

Azeez