The Federal Government has released a total of N63.8 billion for Covid-19 response for the period covering March 1 to June 30, 2020. This is N20.097 billion lower than the N83.9 billion overall Presidential Taskforce (PTF) COVID-19 budget proposals.
This is contained in an interim report of the special audit of Federal Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic for the period March 1 to June 30, 2020 submitted to the clerk to the National Assembly, by Anthony Ayine, the auditor- general of the federation,
The report seen by Businessday showed that out of the N63.8 billion, N22.2 billion was released to the PTF and N24.6 billion was released to ministries, departments and agencies (MDAS) from the 2020 capital budget.
It also revealed that N17 billion was released as Federal Government’s financial intervention to state governments on Covid-19, N1.9 billion was obtained from public donations into the five dedicated commercial bank accounts and the Treasury Single Account (TSA) while funds mobilised for Covid-19 responses stood at N226.9 billion.
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According to the report: “A total of N83.9 billion was budgeted by the Federal Government for the response to the pandemic and the expected sources to fund this budget were as follows; N16.9 billion from the 2020 Budget, N32.5 billion from the Covid- 19 Special Account/levy and N34.5 billion was to be funded through donations from the public and private sectors”.
The report also indicated that in the course of implementing the Covid-19 intervention activities, funds mobilized from various sources as at 30th June 2020 include: “N30.1 billion raised by Coalition against Covid-19 (CACOVID) and is under their direct management. N110.05 billion in cash and in-kind was raised by 12 international development partners and their intervention efforts are on-going in collaboration with the PTF. N21 billion was raised by the NNPC and its oil and gas sector partners and is under their direct management”.
The auditor-general said the interim report covers findings from the audit of transactions amounting to N4.9 billion as at June 30, 2020 (N191 million at the PTF and N4.7 billion at participating agencies), adding that: “a breakdown of the agencies and entities responsible for the transactions is included within the report, and audits of the participating agencies remain ongoing at the time of publishing this interim report”.
Findings by the report revealed that there were gaps in documentation, low utilisation of funds allocated for the containment of Covid-19, no sufficient and appropriate documentary evidence of donations, failure to submit procurement documents for post-review, no sufficient and appropriate documentary approval for funds disbursed, insufficient documentary evidence of expenditure, improper procurement procedures, on-retirement of cash advances, funds utilised on project unrelated to Covid-19 and non-distribution of food items.
The report observed that the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) failed to keep proper accounts of financial expenses, donation and other activities amounting to N1.6 billion.
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