Missing N113m: Senate threatens Finance Ministry, Perm Sec with arrest warrant
…Upper Chamber furious over Perm Sec, other key officials’ disregard of summons
…Issues 48hrs deadline to explain disbursement of Service Wide Votes, missing JAMB’s N113m
The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has again come under the rod of the National Assembly, as the Senate on Tuesday threatened the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry with a warrant of arrest.
The warrant of arrest, the Senate threatened, would be unleashed, if the Permanent Secretary and Director, Cash Departments of the Ministry fails to appear to provide sensitive documents related to disbursement of Service Wide Votes and missing N113 million on salary adjustment for Joint Admission Board Matriculation (JAMB).
Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja, Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South), stated that the threat became imperative over the refusal of the Director to appear before the Committee after three consecutive invitation.
Urhoghide said the Committee had written a letter of appearance to the Ministry on 20th of October, 2022 and the letter was received on 21 October, 2022 by the Ministry.
The Ministry was also to give details of release to all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), including the Police and the Armed Forces.
According to him, another letter was written to the Ministry on December 8, 2022, on the issue concerning missing N113 million of salary augmentation for JAMB.
Meanwhile, the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) told the Committee that the N113 million was released to JAMB in May 2017 for salary augmentation.
The representative of JAMB, Director of Finance and Administration, Mufutau Bello, told the Committee that the N113 million was not released to the Board, just as he argued that if the money was released, it would have cut across the whole year.
According to him, it would cut across all MDAs using CONLESS. If there is a shortfall in May, it will spread to the whole year.
Displeased with the alleged gap, and frequent disregard of the Committee by the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Finance and the Director, Cash Management of the Ministry, Senator Urhoghide then gave the Permanent Secretary 48 hours to appear and provide the relevant documents to the Committee or face warrant of arrest by next week.
The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has recently been on the wrong side of the knocks of the National Assembly, particularly over cases of budget padding among other issues. Recurrent invitation by both chambers of the National Assembly have recently been clouded with the need for the Ministry to appear to offer explanations on certain suspected cases of financial infractions.
