Reps committee questions ministry over unauthorized expenditures
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Assets has queried the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), over its decision to spend funds for its operations without budgetary authorisation.
At a public hearing in Abuja, the committee issued a seven-day ultimatum to the agency to submit all relevant documents on its revenue and expenditure to the committee.
The Chairman of the committee, Rep. Ademorin Kuye (APC-Lagos state) berated the agency for alleged reckless expenditure without improving government revenue.
He expressed disappointment with MOFI for failing to live up to expectations on its mandate to improve on government revenue.
“This is an agency we had high hopes on. What we request of you now is this classes of assets, including shares of publicly traded entities, limited liability entities and foreign based and other businesses.
“A list of these assets home and abroad, improvements that you have made thereupon and how it has helped the GDP.
“Another class is assets is the financial assets, which includes public and private equities investments, fixed income and hedge funds, the fixed assets includes the real estates. We need you to give us a list of those estates.
“We would like to have the value of each if these real assets, revenue made through them for the past 10years and the contributions they have made to the GDP.
“We also want the cash flow generating transactions such as the concession agreement and the public private partnerships.
“We want a list of those concessions under your care and tell us the revenue with evidence from such concessions.
“The last class of assets are the minerals and the intangible assets, which includes the hydrocarbon.
“We want to know the extent of your investments in them and what has come to Nigeria as a result of those investments,” he said.
He demanded for a list of the 52 companies in the agency’s portfolio, with an estimated 18 trillion naira value and over 15, 000 employees.
In his ruling, Kuye said that the agency had wasted legislative time and demanded that the Managing Director, Dr Armstrong Takang to submit all relevant documents and adjourned hearing to a later date.
