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17/08/2022

We used N18.9 billion to clear bush, others — Agric ministry to House of Reps

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development says its spent a whooping N18.9 billion on bush clearing, land preparation among others during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Wole Oke, chairman of the Public Account Committee of the House of Representatives Committee (PAC), said the ministry disclosed this while responding to a probe on how it spent the said sum.

The agric ministry is the subject of an investigation by the House committee into a N18.9 billion contract for bush clearing, preparing the ground, and restoring soil plant laboratories during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.

According to Oke, “During the lockdown of the country as a result of COVID-19, some companies took contracts worth about N18 billion for bush clearing from the federal ministry of agriculture for land preparation, rehabilitation of soil plant lab and others. We cannot shave their heads in their absence.

We have invited them to come and give us their own side by responding to the issues and show us the places they are supposed to have cleared. They have to take us to the land they cleared.

We have invited the ministry of agriculture, and they have made (a) submission. But some of our members whose constituencies these projects were supposed to be domiciled doubted the existence of these projects, and for (a) fair hearing, we have invited the companies that got the contract for them to come and tell this committee where and when the jobs were executed.”

15/08/2022

Termites reportedly eat up N17.128b expenditure evidence at Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF)

The Senate Public Accounts Committee (S**C) has put the current and past management of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) under scrutiny for the failure to produce relevant documents to justify alleged spending of N17.158 billion in 2013.

The committee said it discovered that the fund’s management and some of the documents to back the expenses were said to have been eaten up by termites.

The Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAuGF), in its 2018 audit report – now being considered by the Senate panel chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide (Edo South) – had queried the agency over the disbursed sums without appropriate supporting documents.

In his report Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAuGF),said the Seventy Billion Naira – N17.158 billion represented the total sum of money, transferred by the agency from its Skye and First Bank accounts, into various untraceable accounts belonging to individuals and companies between January and December 2013.

The OAuGF had, in its 2018 audit report, raised 50 different queries bordering on alleged misappropriation of funds against the agency. The AuGF’s query reads in part: “Management of NSITF, as shown in statements of account number 1750011691 with Skye Bank Plc, for the period 1st January, 2013 to 20th December, 2013, and statements of account number 2001754610 with First Bank Plc for the period January 7, 2013 to February 28, 2013, transferred amounts totalling N17,158,883,034.69 to some persons and companies from these accounts.

However, payment vouchers relating to the transfers together with their supporting documents were not provided for audit. Consequently, the purpose(s) for the transfers could not be authenticated.

But the current NSITF Managing Director, Dr. Michael Akabogu, was said to have claimed that no such documents were in the organisation’s custody. T

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