The Delta State House of Assembly is said to be probing the immediate-past secretary to the government of Delta State, Chiedu Ebie, over an alleged misappropriation of N278,578,800.00 while in office, THE WITNESS reports.
Ebie, a former commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, who was appointed the state secretary in 2019 was sacked by the state governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, in May this year.
The newspaper reliably gathered that the money has been uncounted for by Ebie since 2019 following an audit carried out by the Office of the State Auditor-general.
Contained in part four of the 2019 audit report of the auditor general of Delta State as updated, under section 4 subsection 3 (38), and sighted by THE WITNESS, the SSG’s office total budget provision for 2019 was N3.5 billion (N3,566,000,000.00) while the audited actual expenditure incurred in the same period amounted to N3,565,976,398.00, resulting in about N23,602.00 savings.
However, the sum of N278,578,800.00 or 7.8% of the N3.5 billion is said to have been misappropriated.
According to the state auditor-general’s query: “A total of 16 payment vouchers valued at N278,578,800.00 or 7.8% of regular and non-regular overhead of N3,565,976,398.00 were queried for various infringements in the provisions of the Financial Regulations such as no audit certificate, no sub-receipts and no evidence of job completion…”
Sources however disclosed that an ad hoc committee has been set up by the Delta State House of Assembly to investigate and grill the former SSG over the allegations.
Ebie, in a terse message to THE WITNESS’ inquiries, said “This must be the biggest joke of the century”.
