SHOCKING:”FG SQUANDERED N4.17TN ILLEGALLY IN 9 YEARS” – REPS

 

According to a shocking report released by the House Committee on Public Accounts (PAC), the Federal Government ‘illegally’ spent over N4 trillion from 2004 to 2012 without the approval of the National Assembly.

The report not only revealed a gross misuse of the Service-wide Vote, which is provided annually to cover 

emergencies that crop up during the year, but also alleged that the Obasanjo government squandered N250 million for the upkeep of the family of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who sought asylum in the country between 2004 and 2006

At a briefing of journalists during the weekend, the Chairman of PAC, Adeola Olamilekan, termed the expenditure incurred as an ‘abuse’ of the Service-wide Vote, explaining that PAC’s investigation revealed that the vote was converted to a recurrent fund by the government, instead of an infrastructure vote.

After cross examination of the Auditor-General’s reports on the accounts of MDAs, the report indicated the following:

1.       An expenditure of N162m from the 2011 Service-wide Vote was tagged “Closing Accounts” incurred by both the Budget and Accountant General’s Office of the Federation.

2.       N1.2bn was spent on the overseas trips of government officials to seek medical attention.

3.       N250m was used for the upkeep of former Liberian President, Mr. Charles Taylor when he sought asylum in the country between 2004 and 2006.

4.       A pattern of increases in releases from the SWV from 2007 to 2012 was also noticed, N1.7tn being the highest spending from 2010 to 2012.

5.       Two security challenges (Niger Delta militancy and the Boko Haram insurgency) were the only “real emergency spending” from the vote that was justified, which cost the government N144.4bn between 2009 & 2012.

Including other “unexplained” expenses incurred, the government spent over N4.17tn contrary to the N1.8tn approved by the National Assembly, implying that an extra-budgetary expenditure of N2.2tn was incurred in the process.

“Such extra-budgetary expenditures constitute a breach of Section 81 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and an illegality, Olamilekan explained.”

He added, “These releases were mainly used to finance recurrent expenses not targeted at critical and strategic sectors of the economy and the releases were random and did not follow any clear pattern.”

The Committee urged the House of Reps to scrap the vote if it was poorly implemented, and that the extra-budgetary expenditure during the period “should be investigated and those found culpable should be sanctioned.”