NAN-H-32
Violation
By Mohammed Lawal
Zaria (Kaduna State), Nov. 22, 2017(NAN) The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) on Wednesday expressed displeasure over non compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on Treasury Single Account (TSA) by the management of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) Zaria.
The Leader of the North-West Zone team, Hajiya Maryam Iliyasu-Mohammed made the remark during a meeting with ABUTH management after the inspection of some ongoing projects in the hospital at Shika, Zaria.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the inspection team was at ABUTH to monitor 2015/2016 capital projects fiscal year.
Ilyasu-Mohammed, who is a Deputy Director in the commission, lamented that the hospital refused to comply with the Federal Government directive on TSA, because its clients were still making cash payments instead of through the remitter.
She said contracts were being awarded without following due process, saying there were some companies without tax clearance and no pre-qualification tender bid.
“All these are violation of section 38 of the FRA2007 of due process in the award of contracts and abuse of which states that all contracts with regards to the execution of annual budget shall comply with the rules and guidelines.
“Section 38 of the FRA 2007 of due process in the award of contracts states that all contracts with regards to the execution of annual budget shall comply with the rules and guidelines on procurement and award of contracts.
“Due process and certification of contracts. ABUTH Zaria is in violation of the section of the Act ,the utilisation of internally generated revenue and abuse of TSA policy of the Federal Government,” she said.
She observed that the hospital had poor record keeping, adding that issuance of contracts were done without following due process.
“I want to state that after going through your records, they are haphazard due to improper record keeping .
“It seems you don’t have a Procurement Department or unit ,you may request for a Procurement officer from Bpp or train some staff to handle Procurement efficiency, “she said.
She advised the management to establish a procurement unit or department and ensure that each project has its own separate file.
The Director advised them to liaise with Accountant General’s office explaining their peculiarities for advise on the use of their IGR and compliance with the TSA policy.
Responding on behalf of the Chief Medical Director( CMD), Prof. Lawal Khalid, represented by the Director of Administration, Alhaji Abdul-Raheem Sallau promised to address the problem of improper record keeping among other deficiencies.,
According to him, already ,the hospital had trained two procurement officers assuring that very soon a procurement department would be created.(NAN)
KLM//MTM/
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Edited by Tukur Muntari.