The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has summoned a total of 63 agencies over N2 trillion illegal spending.
The committee claimed that the institutions had adopted budgets that had not been approved by the National Assembly and presented them to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Oluwole Oke, the committee’s chairman, also demanded proof of appropriation by the National Assembly in a letter to Ben Akabueze, the director general of the Federation’s budget office.
While the clerk delivers passed budgets to the Presidency for implementation, it is envisaged that the President would submit budgetary proposals from MDAs to the National Assembly.
On October 7, 2022, during a joint meeting of the National Assembly, Buhari chastised the parliamentary committee for approving government-owned enterprises without his permission.
The President had said: “Distinguished Senators, Honourable Members, you may recall that we earlier integrated the budget of Government-Owned Enterprises into the FGN’s 2019 budget submission. This has helped to enhance the comprehensiveness and transparency of the FGN budget. It has, however, come to my attention that Government-Owned Enterprises liaise directly with relevant NASS committees to have their budget passed and issued to them directly.
“I would like to implore the leadership of the National Assembly to ensure that the budget I lay here today, which includes those of the GOEs, be returned to the Presidency when passed. The current practice where some committees of the National Assembly purport to pass budgets for GOEs, which are at variance with the budgets sanctioned by me, and communicate such directly to the MDAs, is against the rules and needs to stop.”
The committee, in the letter dated November 8, 2022, with Reference Number: HR/PAC/SCO5/9NASS/QUE.60/97, which was received at the Budget Office of the Federation on November 10, 2022, noted that the query was based on the alarm raised by the President.
