ABUJA—The Public Accounts Committee, PAC, of the
House of Representatives revealed at the weekend that over
N4 trillion was spent from 2004 to 2012 by the Federal
Government from Service-wide Vote without the approval of
the National Assembly.
The committee said due process was not followed in the
manner such a huge sum was lavished, noting that it
contravened Section 80 of 1999 constitution.
The committee also alleged that between 2005 and 2006, the
government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo spent
N250 million to feed former President of Liberia, Charles
Taylor and his family, who were on an asylum in the country.
Chairman of PAC, Adeola Olamilekan (APC-Lagos), who
disclosed these at a briefing of journalists, said the
expenditure was made without parliamentary approval,
starting from the government of President Obasanjo to that of
President Goodluck Jonathan.
Olamilekan explained that "most of the expenditures to which
the Service-wide Vote releases were deployed are routine in
nature and did not qualify for emergency funding.
"For instance, between 2004 and 2012, a total of N1,
284,853,731.20 was spent on publicity and publication of
various government programmes.
"Between 2004 and 2005, N250 million was spent on the
upkeep of the former Liberian President, Charles Taylor,
another N14,006,494.847.57 was also released from the
Service-wide Vote for the payment of judgement debts
against the Federal Government.
"The office of the Accountant-General of the Federation,
Budget Office and the Ministry of Finance released to their
various offices a total of N2, 267,002,101 to a few auditors as
audit fees and in 2011 alone, the Office of the Accountant-
General of the Federation paid out N809,358,504 as audit fees
to some external auditors carrying out audit of the Federal
Government financial activities instead of the Office of the
Auditor-General of the Federation."
He also alleged that over N160 million was released for the
Budget and Accountant General's offices.
He said further: "The expenditure of N162million from the
2011 Service Wide Votes releases tagged; "Closing Accounts"
incurred jointly by the Office of the Accountant-General and
the Budget Office of the Federation.
"An expenditure of N1,059,177,589.31($6,619,859.93 at the
rate of $1=N160) in 201 and 2011 said to payment of
outstanding tax on Nigeria House in New York.
"Successive governments have from 2004 to 2012. Spent a
whopping N4.17 trillion as against N1.8trillion approved by
the National Assembly as Service Wide Votes component of
the budgets of those years, translating to N2.27trillion extra
budgetary spending or 220% above the Service Wide Votes as
approved in the budget for the period."
He explained that "such extra-budgetary expenditures
constitute a breach of Section 81 of the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999(as amended) and an
illegality."
Olamilekan also said PAC discovered in the course of its
oversight that the Service-Wide Vote was converted to a
recurrent fund by the government, instead of an infrastructure
vote.
"Such releases were mainly used to finance recurrent expenses
not targeted at critical and strategic sectors of the economy
and the releases were random and did not follow any clear
pattern.
"The Service Wide Votes had become an alternative budget
which government prefers to patronize than the annual budget,
leading to poor implementation of the annual budget as
approved by the National Assembly," he added.
The report was earlier last Thursday presented by Olamilekan
to the House which resolved that the committee should do
more on its findings and present another report within two
weeks.
The Service Wide Wide is the fund set aside for emergency
purposes.
Via: Vanguard
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