Reps’ Committee summons NPA, FRSC, TETFUND, 60 other MDAs for spending N2 trn budgets illegally

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has summoned 63 of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of the Federal Government for implementing illegal budgets, leading to their spending of over N2trn without statutory approval.

Some of the affected Agencies are Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, Nigeria Postal Service, NIPOST, Nigerian Port Authority, NPA,
Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, Nigerian Television Authority, NTA,
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA,
Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, Joint Admission and Marticulation Board, JAMB, Federal Road Safety Corp , and FRSC, Federal Housing Authority, FHA.

This came just as the Chairman of the committee, Hoin Oluwole Oke, has written a letter to the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, to demand evidence of appropriation by the National Assembly, of the expenditures made by the Ministries, departments, agencies, institutes, corporations and parastatals.

In the letter dated November 8, 2022, with Reference Number: HR/PAC/SCO5/9NASS/QUE.60/97, which was received at the Budget Office on November 10, 2022, the committee noted that the query was based on the alarm raised by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd,), during his 2023 budget presentation to the National Assembly on October 7, 2022.

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The letter was entitled, ‘Re-Request for Information/Documents with Respect to Allegations of Illegal Approvals of Budgets and Extra-Constitutional Expenditure by Some Government Owned Enterprises and Non-Treasury Funded Agencies.’

It partly read, “In pursuance of the power conferred on the National Assembly (Assembly) by Sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as altered) (Constitution), Standing Rules of the House of Representatives, and based on Section 2 of the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act 2017, the Public Accounts Committee is conducting investigation into the allegation made by President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR (Mr. President), during the presentation of the 2023 Appropriation Bill before a joint session of the National Assembly.

“Mr President alleged that some Government Owned Enterprises have been submitting their budget and getting it passed through some committees of the National Assembly outside of the process prescribed in Section 81(1) of the Constitution.

“In view of the above and in line with Sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution, I hereby request that Budget Office of the Federation furnish the committee with the approved Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) budget of the following parastatals for the period 2015-2022.

“Please kindly submit a soft copy and 15 hard copies of the above documents/information to Suite 4.23 House of Representatives Building, National Assembly, on or before the close of work on Friday 16th November, 2022.”

Giving more details on the matter, Oke said, “Over N2tn was spent illegally. Mr President has never presented or assented to these budegets. They are to tell Nigerian why they are operating illegal budgets; budgets that have not gone through the due process of law-making. Mr President never presented them to the Parliament neither did the Speaker nor the Senate President sight or read them on the floor. All the agencies fingered have all been summoned by the committee.”