Paschal Emeka, Abuja
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has threatened to arrest 25 Heads of Ministries, Department, and Agencies of the Federal Government, MDAs, that have refused to honor the Committee’s several invitations, if they failed to appear before it within 24 hours.
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon Oluwole Oke, handed down the threat during one of the Committee’s sitting on Tuesday, in Abuja.
According to Oke, “we have come to a stage where the Committee has to exercise its constitutional powers, we are not a dog that can only bark but can not bite.”
“The Committee Clerk is hereby directed to prepare the full list of those involved if, by tomorrow morning, we will have no choice but to present it to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep Femi Gbajabiamila to sign the warrant of arrest,” he ruled.
Some of the Agencies are the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, (TETFUND), Universal Education Commission, (UBEC), Nigerian Ports Authority, (NPA), Ministry of Transportation, Nigerian Railway Corporation, (NRC), and Ministry of Works and Housing among others.
In a related development, the House PAC on Tuesday gave the management of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND a 7-day ultimatum to appear before it and provide explanations regarding its mode of the operations of Funds under its care, as well as its reserve in line with its Establishment Act.
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon Oluwole Oke, gave the resolution when the acting
Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Mr. Sylva Okolieaboh appeared before the panel to respond to multiple queries raised against several Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of the Federal Government.
Oke said the Management of TETFUND is to appear along with the Accountant General to explain the mode of operations of the Funds in line with the Act which established it.
The Management of TETFUND is also expected to explain the utilization of the two-and-a-half percent Education Tax being collected from Companies and Agencies on behalf of the Federal Government.
The Committee, in addition, requested details of expenditures, a list of donors, grants, and total amounts involved.
It also queried the practice where the Agency had not been rolling back its surplus funds to the consolidated revenue account of the Federal Government at the end of every financial year as is the practice with other MDAs.
The Committee, therefore, directed that officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS) should come along to assist in carrying out the investigation into the operations of TEFFUND.