• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Reps to probe OAU Agric Institute over inconsistency in N400m expenditure

Reps to probe OAU Agric Institute over inconsistency in N400m expenditure

The House of Representatives has placed the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), an arm of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) on the status inquiry over inconsistency in N400 million expenditure of the Institute.

The Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Wole Oke gave this ruling at the end of an investigative hearing into the audit query issued by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAUGF).

Oke said the decision was based on the presentation at the hearing which he observed was flawed with inconsistency.

The N21 million purportedly released in the 2018 budget as against the N50 million appropriated did not tally with the over N400 million captured as expenditure in the Institute’s financial report.

The argument by IAR&T Executive Director, Veronica Obatola that the increase in the expenditure was due to the fact that it covered both the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years and the expenditure figure carried over from the previous year were added to that of the following year was not accepted by the Committee.

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Obatola refused that IAR$T did not receive any loan, grant or bilateral aid, foreign or local, but during the scrutiny of the audit reports, evidence later showed that such aids running into millions of naira were received.

The Committee’s Chairman, Oke identified a big lacuna in the agency’s presentation and cautioned its Chief Executive Officer to spare some time from her research duties to ensure that financial reports are transparently prepared.

He, therefore, constituted a four-man sub-committee to be led by Deputy Chairman, Abdulkadir Sa’ad to visit the Institute this Friday, with the view to examine its books and mode of operations including assessment of infrastructure on ground.

The lawmaker stressed the need to collectively fix Nigeria in terms of transparency and accountability in the area of expenditure so that the upcoming generations will have a country to call its own.