By Starrys Obazei | May 12, 2023.
starrys@ddnewsonline.com
The Senate said that President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to act on a report that indicted top management of government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, who have spent well over N1 trillion fraudulently.
The indictment of the MDAs by the Senate, yesterday, was a sequel to the consideration of Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South) led Senate Committee on Public Accounts reports of 2017 and 2018 of Auditor General of the Federation.
Addressing journalists after the presentation of the reports, the Vice Chairman of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, Senator Hassan Hadejia (APC, Jigawa North East) said, that the committee has been able to submit four reports to the Senate, which has never happened since 1999, explaining that the 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 reports of the auditor general have been submitted and considered by Senate.
Senator Hadejia said: “We have put two bills together, the Federal Audit Bill, which has already been passed. Next week, the second Bill relating to the office of the Auditor General for the Federation will be considered. It seeks to approve some level of the mandate for the adoption and application of the Public Accounts Committee reports.
“The total money that we have discovered so far and which we have said should be refunded, amounted to over N1 trillion.
“We have submitted our reports to the executive arm of government but up till now, we have not even got an acknowledgment of the report from the executive.”
Earlier during the consideration, the Senate, yesterday indicted the office of Accountant General of the Federation and National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, and 45 other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.
The Senate also ordered Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, to recover $10 million paid for legal fees and technical charges without results to Consolidated Revenue Fund, CRF.
In the $10 million expected to be recovered, $5 million was for legal fees and an additional $5 million for technical charges, just as $5 million was said to be the five percent of the $9.3 billion Nigerian hydro-carbon loss between 2013 and 2014.
The name of the law firm, though not disclosed, was expected to carry out necessary legal actions that would enable NIMASA to perfect an intelligence-based efforts to track the nation’s hydro-carbon global movement.
The AuGF report indicated that the money was paid from new generation bank dollar account.