By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The Senate has directed the Office of Accountant General of the Federation to recover the N910bn short-term loans it gave out to federal ministries, departments, and agencies from the Special Funds Accounts totalling.
The Senate Public Accounts Committee led by Senator Mathew Urhoghide, which investigated the 2017 report of the Auditor General for the Federation, discovered the anomaly.
The panel after concluding its findings, submitted its report to the Senate in plenary.
The Committee observed that there was a continuous abuse of the Special Funds by the Executive arm of government as the withdrawals were continually made for political expediency outside the purpose for which the funds were meant.
Part of the panel report read, “There is continuous abuse of the Special Funds by Executive as the withdrawals are continually made for political expediency outside the purpose which the funds were meant.”
The Senate, therefore, ordered that all outstanding loans should be recovered by the Accountant General of the Federation and evidence of recovery presented to the Auditor General and Senate Public Accounts Committee within 60 days.
According to the AuGF query, loans and debts arising from Special Funds Accounts totalling N910,039,557,742 showed that the balances remained unpaid throughout the year even though they were meant to be short-term.
However, the Office of the Accountant General in its response claimed that several letters have been written to the Honourable Minister of Finance to authorize the settlement of the loans granted against allocations of various MDAs affected.
The AGF office added that it had requested the Honourable to include the repayment of the loan in the 2017 budget.
Meanwhile, Senate has directed the Executive Chairman of Imo state Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to account paid to companies that were not financially capable contrary to the requirement of extant rules.
The Chairman of the board failed to appear before the Committee to defend the allegation of payment without due process.
