The Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday accused 25 government agencies of alleged mismanagement of public funds and refusing to proffer information on the agencies’ expenditures.
Chairman of the committee, Mathew Urhoghide, while briefing newsmen in Abuja explained that the summoning of the agencies became imperative to ensure accountability and transparency in the management of public funds, as well as guarantee economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of public resources.
The named agencies are Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Federal Capital Territory Administration, Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, Niger Delta Development Commission, National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Nigeria Football Federation.
Others are Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, National Space Research & Development Agency, Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute, Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Petroleum Equalisation Fund (Management) Board, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Presidential Amnesty Programme, and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company.
Also accused and summoned by the committee are Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Nigeria Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Industrial Training Fund, Nigerian Railway Corporation, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Urhogide said the errant agencies were given notice to appear and make submissions on their expenditures and other issues hinged on corruption but that they defaulted.
The committee did not, however, disclose how much the agencies allegedly mismanaged and/or what projects the funds were used to execute.
Explaining the rationale behind the summons, Urhoghide said the committee is charged with the responsibility of evaluating activities of all government agencies that enjoy funding from the Federal Government.
“Because we have the responsibility to check corruption and mismanagement of funds, we wrote and made calls to these agencies to furnish us with information on their expenditures and fund management and other issues but they have refused to do so,” Urhoghide said.
“We are ready to bring anybody to public arena and there are no sacred cows. We are giving them only seven days to give us all the information we have demanded. We have written and even made calls to them but they refused to respond,” he said.
He said the Senate Public Accounts Committee issued correspondences to relevant institutions of government seeking their responses to enable the committee carry out special oversight functions in line with Sections 85, 88 & 89 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and Order 97(5) of the Senate Standing Orders 2015 as amended. As a result, he said, all the defaulting agencies have been given the last opportunity to make submissions.
“Notice is hereby issued to defaulting MDAs and other organisations of government to, without further delay, make submissions within seven (7) days, that is, 20 to 27 of November, 2019 on their responses to the issues raised by the Committee and its various correspondences regarding their income and expenditure operations from 2017 to 2019,” Urhoghide said.
According to him, the essence is to check corruption, ensure accountability and transparency in public spending and ensure that funds are being spent on the purposes they are meant.
SOLOMON AYADO, Abuja
