●Grills officials of REA, Ministry of Health over alleged mismanagement
The Public Accounts Commiteee, PAC, of the House of Representatives on Thursday ordered the Federal Ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment along with its past and present Permanent Secretaries to jointly refund a whopping sum of N75bn to the coffers of the federal government with immediate effect
The Committee being Chaired by Hon Bamidele Salam (PDP-OSUN) gave the directive at the resumed probe of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of the Federal Government on alleged mismanagement of COVID-19 intervention funds by the MDAs.
The Committee lamented that the Ministry had shunned the three invitations extended to it based on audit queries from the office of the Auditor General of the Federatiom on the alleged mismanagement of the intervention funds.
The Committee also grilled the officials of the Federal Ministry of Health over the alleged mismanagement of the intervention funds and directed the officials to reappear before it within seven days with relevant documents on how N10bn was squandered.
On the other hand, the Rural Electrification Agency, REA, was given 24 hours within which to submit its defence on the several billions of Naira allocated to it the funds and to appear before it on Monday for the defence of the submission.
The Chairman of the Committee Hon Bamidele Salam who vowed that the Committee would do everything possible within the law to recover all mismanagement funds by the MDAs declared that there would be no hiding place for the officials- retired or serving- responsible for such acts.
According to him,The federal Ministry of Trade, Industries and Investments that got the sum of N75 billion as COVID-19 Intervention funds. The Public Account Committee has sent invitation to the Ministry of Trade Industries and Investments three times, and none of the invitations has been honoured.
“The federal Ministry of Trade was to make their appearance yesterday. That was the last opportunity given to them and there was no such appearance. N75 billion Naira was appropriated to them.
“Former Permanent Secretary and the current Permanent Secretary are affected by this motion to refund the sum of N75 billion back to the federal government as COVID-19 Intervention which as far as we are concerned has not been expended”
He made it clear that the essence of the probe was not witch hunt anybody, ministry or agencies but to ensure that the committee is transparent and accountable in its investigation over the various sums of money released to the MDAs.
Also, the Committee directed the Federal Ministry of Health to return N10 billion meant for the production of COVID-19 vaccines which was not utilised to the federal government.
The directive followed the appearance and submission by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Daju Kachallom who told the Committee that the funds were domiciled with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
The Committee said, the funds should be returned adding that, if the ministry needed it for anything else, it should make a fresh request to the National Assembly for proper appropriation.
Similarly, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) was directed to submit documents detailing the utilisation of the agency’s COVID-19 Intervention funds.
The DG of the Agency, Salihijo Ahmed who appeared before the Committee requested for more time to submit relevant documents.
The Committee directed him to submit the documents on Friday before the close of work and to appear on Monday at 10am.
The Management of the Federal Avaiation Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, led by its Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer,Mrs Olubunmi Kuku also appeared before the Committee defend the allocation her Agency gotten through the supervisory Ministry
According to her, ” year 2020 was particularly challenging owing to the advent of the Corona Virus. On the 11th of March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic which negatively impacted all human activities, with the aviation industry one of the most severely affected.
“At that time, the Authority was barely able to part pay staff salaries, while other commitments were put on hold with only about 5% revenue deployed for airport maintenance. This situation did not augur well with the various Aviation Unions. This resulted in them issuing threats to shut down the airports if something drastic not done.
“This gave rise to the request by the Authority, through the Supervising Ministry, for a six (6) months’ salary intervention in the sum of N16.8Billion for payment of Personnel Cost and other related costs.
From this request, the sum of N7.7Billion was released to FAAN out of the N24Billion requested by the Ministry of Aviation as Intervention.
“The breakdown of the utilization of this fund is attached in our submission.”
The Committee consequently directed her to reappear before it with relevant documents to back up her defence.
Stay ahead with the latest updates! Join The ConclaveNG on WhatsApp and Telegram for real-time news alerts, breaking stories, and exclusive content delivered straight to your phone. Don’t miss a headline — subscribe now!
