LINUS CHIBUIKE
THE Senate has queried the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning over a N2.8bn released from the Service Wide Vote, which it said the Ministry did not account for.
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts, which raised the issue, said the amount was earmarked for estacodes and other allowances for those representing the Federal Government in selected international events.
The Committee, chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide, representing Edo South Senatorial District, said out of the N2.8bn, payment vouchers were raised for the sum of N113,558,372.85, while N2,772,214,120.42 was unaccounted for.
The senators based their analysis on the 2018 report of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
While lamenting the alleged abuse of service wide votes by government agencies, the committee chair vowed to monitor and investigate agencies’ management of the votes in the 2021 budget.
The Senate said Financial Regulation 601 stipulates that all payment entries in the cash book/accounts shall be vouched for on one of the prescribed treasury forms.
‘’Vouchers shall be made out in favour of the person or persons to whom the money is actually due. Under no circumstances shall a cheque be raised, or cash paid for services for which a voucher has not been raised,” it added, quoting the regulation.
Uroghide said, “During our audit, it was observed that the sum of N2,885,772,493.27 was released to the Federal Ministry of Finance from the Service Wide Vote. This is to take care of estacodes and other allowances for those representing the Federal Government in internationally organized annual board meetings, conferences and workshops, including contribution to Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.
“This infraction was due to the failure of the Permanent Secretary to seek approval from the appropriate authorities to incur the above expenditure which is seemingly unaccounted for.”
“The Ministry may carry out such unauthorized or unapproved expenditure that may lead to diversion of public funds for other purposes. It may also lead to mismanagement and underutilization of public funds,” he added.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Aliyu Ahmed, however, told the committee that he could not respond to the query immediately.
He therefore urged the committee to give him another time to appear with the response.
The lawmakers accepted his plea and asked him to appear on Tuesday.
