The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts on Thursday resolved to investigate the $36.1 million and $1.5 million grant obtained to finance the operations of the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (oAuGF) in the 2020 Appropriation Act.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Wole Oke, disclosed this in Abuja during the investigative hearing into the petition on underfunding of the oAuGF by the Budget Office of the Federation.
A member of the panel, Hon. Mark Gbillah after the disclosure asked, “Is that proper? I do not believe that is proper, and I think that fundamentally that is the issue. Since you are still saying that it was indicated in the MTEF but not in the budget, is that what we are suppose to be the standard not the budget proposal?”
On his part, Deputy Chairman of the panel, Hon. Abdulkadir Abdullahi, who expressed displeasure over the tone of the letter from the Director General of Budget Office, alleged that his privilege was breached and urged the Committee to refer the letter to the Speaker for further legislative action.
In his response, the DG, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Benjamin Akabueze, argued that the $36.1 million loan was part of the $125 million or N709 billion loan reflected in the fiscal framework, adding that “all the agencies that need the funds know about this and the access. The details of the loans are usually captured in the budget where there is need for payment of counterpart funding.”
Mr. Akabueze who described the allegation leveled against him of deliberately starving the office of the Auditor General of funds as false and pre-judicial, argued that none of the 1,200 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have sufficient funds required at any given time.
