The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts (PAC) on Tuesday began a full-scale probe into how 115 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the federal government incurred over N600billion extra-budgetary expenditures said to have been expended on salary and wages as contained in the audit quries raised by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation from 2018 till date.
Addressing the opening session of the investigative hearing attended by a team from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, led by the Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Sylva Okolieaboh, the Committee frowned at the defence that some of the expenditures were incurred based on existing circulars and directives.
The Committee is chaired by Hon Busayo Oluwole Oke (PDP-Osun).
The audit query reads, “Audit observed that 203 MDAs exceeded their personnel cost budget by N641,757455,172. 01, while 115 MDAs had zero personnel cost even though there was budgetary allocation for them. The sources of extra funds for salaries and wages in 103 were not disclosed. Also, the reasons for zero personnel budget allocation for the 115 MDAs were not stated despite the fact that the MDAs under defence had annual budgets approved for them.”
It advised that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation should investigate the sources of the extra budgetary expenditures and reasons for non compliance with down financial regulations
The Committee recommended that failure to justify sources and reasons for the expenditures, “the expenditures totalling N641.75bn, the officers in charge should be held pecuniary responsible”
According to the the Chairman, “this is an abberation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, clear rape of financial regulation and public procurement act, nobody has the power to appropriate any money to any MDAs except the National Assembly through the budget from the Mr President, before the passage of Mr President’s appropriation bill, it has to pass through stages and after the passage, it has to be returned to the Mr President for his ascent
“But we have discovered a situation where some ministers and heads of MDAs are found of appropriating funds and approving several millions of naira for spending without such coming to the parliament but relling on circulars and directives, this is illegal and we are going to stop it.
Consequently, the Chairman directed the Accountant General of the Federation to make available the list of 115 MDAs involved in the suspicious spendings to the Committee by Wednesday morning when the investigation would continue
Hon. Oke said that in the spirit of fear hearing, the culprits MDAs would be summoned to come and explained their own side of the case as claimed in the audit eeport.
Earlier, the Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Sylva Okolieaboh, had expressed appreciation to the National Assembly for extending hand of fellowship to his office since he assumed office and pledged that all invitations from the parliament would receive prompt responses from his office.
Meanwhile,The House of Representatives Committee on Mines and Steel Development has rejected the approval of funds for capital projects at Ajaoku Iron and Steel Complex for failing to meet the expectations of the entire citizenry of the Nigeria nation.
Chairman of the House Committee Hon Abdullahi Halims and other committee members said at the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development budget defense that huge national resources should no longer be wasted on the facility for capital projects by any government until the complex is revived for benefits of all
He told the Minister and other top officials of the ministry that they are supposed to justify the 2023 budge estimates on recurrient and capital allocations in relation the level of the 2022 budget performance and the status of capital projects implementation.
He said: “Hon.Minister we are witnesses that Nigeria today is facing the most uncertain economic realities and set back by unprecedented debt profile due to nation’s over dependence on oil sector and petroleum industry”.
The House Committee also expressed displeasure that there is no veritable and reliable statistics on the issue of illegal mining of minerals by foreigners and called on the Minster and other relevant authorities to halt the menace.
In his response the Minister told the committee that the Ministry has got the records of 2,000 arisanal miners in parts of the country adding that there is no statistics in the quantity of mineral resources taken away by them from illegal mining activities.
He further told the lawmkers that the concessioning of the moribund steel complex is expected to be completed in 2023 and assured the committee that there is no budget for capital project for the steel complex in the current budget.
He had earlier presented before the Committee a budget estimate of N10.096.526.00 for personnel cost, N25.046,280.26.00 for capital and N2.058,594,187.00 for overhead cost for the Ministry and its agencies for 2023.
He told the Committee that inadequate funding, illegal mining and insecurity are the major challenges facing the ministry in the discharge of its constitional mandate in the critical actor of the nation’s economy.
Some notable members of the House Committee who spoke against approval of funds for capital projects at the foremost industrization facility include Hon.Victor Mela, Hon.Ben Nzomdu and Hon. Mark Elena that represent federal constituencies in Gombe, Benue and Jigawa states respectively.
