Chairman of the Senate Committee asked the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to get the necessary documents and return on Thursday.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Senate on Tuesday began a probe on the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation over the N978 billion which the office received from the Service Wide Vote (SWV) between 2017 and 2021.
The said amount was the expenditure of both capital and recurrent expenditures disbursed to the Ministries, Department, and Agencies (MDAs).
The investigation came less than one week after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed that it collected about N30 billion from the former Accountant General of the Federation, Idris Ahmed, who is currently under investigation for alleged N110 billion fraud.
Speaking at the opening of the investigative hearing, the Chairman of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, Senator Mathew Urhoghide, observed that there were some releases from SWV in which there was no authority to incur expenditure and this elicited suspension of the Committee, adding that it was only memos provided to back the releases.
Chairman of the Senate Committee was not satisfied with the submission of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
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He said the Office needed to explain to the committee the expenditures for proper understanding, “because the figures are enormous and response to the committee is not satisfactory.”
Uroghide said, “From what I have seen, we may need time so that we can analyse the expenditure one by one, these figures are enormous and the response is not satisfactory.”
However, the Office of Accountant General of the Federation, represented by Director of Fund, Sabo Mohammed, told the Senate committee to give them more time to respond the issues raised.
He said, “It will take some time, we should do it systematically to save our time and your time, this is a matter of going back and do them one after the other.
“We have responded to some, we will still go back and separate our own from that of MDAs. We have found out that many of the figures may not be correct.”
Chairman of the Senate Committee, therefore, asked the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to get the necessary documents and return on Thursday.