Audit query. Reps Committee grills officials of Ministry of Finance over N17bn extra- budget expenditure
…….Demand for details expenditure
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts PAC on Thursday directed the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to furnish it with documentary evidence of approval for the over N17 Billion extra-budgetary spending, taken out of the Sovereign Wealth Fund SWF under its control, over a 4-year period (2016-2019)
Committee Chairman Hon Busayo Oluwole Oke (PDP-Osun) who gave the directive at an investigative hearing sequel to an audit query, also demanded for concrete evidences, backed by documents, of detailed expenditure of the amount which he said was too heavy to be overlooked.
During the investigative hearing attended by the representatives of the Accountant-General of the federation and the Auditor-General of the federation, the Finance ministry in comparing notes with them agreed to recieving and expending some of the alleged sums over the years, but denied recieving others.
The Committee also directed the ministry to liaise with the office of the AGF and that of the AuGF to reconcile on the genuineness of the figures, N15billion in 2016, N1.5billion in 2017, N550mllion in 2018 and N512million in 2019 as contained in the audit query.
Oke who alongside other committee members grilled the Ministry’s chief accounting officer said that the office should provide detailed breakdown of what the officials did with the money, if only on those they agreed on having expended.
The explanation by the Finance Ministry PS that the N15 billion entered as extra-budgetaty spending by the ministry in 2016 had been cleared earlier with the committee was staunchly denied by the Committee Chairman who said authoratively that the expenditure was never part of expenditure reconciled between the Auditor General, the Committee and the Finance Ministry.
In his explanation of the nitty-gritty of the expenditure of the ginds sourced from the Sovereign Wealth Fund over the years, the Director of Finance Aliyu Ahmed said much of the funds were expended on paying Nigeria’s regular subscription fees to the various international bodies it belonged.
According to him, “The ministry makes naira available to the CBN who in turn pay these subscription in hard currencies. Also different levels of Nigerian delegation starting from presidential are sponsored to international conferences, meetings and seminars by the ministry. Many of these trips are expensive and are not captured in the ministry’s annual budgetary provisions”
Aliyu Ahmed also gave statutory spendings such as Sector Focus Laboratories Implementation and FCCB as well as the North-East Pilot Counterfund Funding as major projects requiring special intervention funds.
Rep Wole Oke in his response described the DF’s explanations as abstract and vague and approved the Ministry’s request for a two week Grace to reconcile with the Auditor-Genetal on the level of its expenditure from the SWF as well as provide the documentary evidences demanded on such expenditure.
