N74bn social benefits payment without details: Senate sustains Indictment of Accountant General
By Tunde Opalana
The Senate has refused to vacate an indictment of Accountant General of the Federation for paying a whooping N74 billion as social benefits without breakdown in the 2016 budget .
The Senate acted upon and sustained an indictment on the nation’s chief financial officer by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation which in it’s 2016 report had raised concern over payment of N262.4 billion as social benefits against the N188 billion provided for in the budget.
This left a balance of N74 billon tagged as extra-budgetary payment of which no concrete details or breakdown were provided.
The query raised by the office of the Auditor General on the financial infraction reads” The total cost for social benefits amounted to N262.3 billion whereas the budget amount for the period was N188 billion as contained in the budget report , resulting in the extra-budtary expenditure of N74 billion.
” In addition it was observed that there was no breakdown of the total social benefits cost of N262 billion to disclose the different individual amounts for gratuity, pension and death benefits that make up social benefits.”
When the representative of the Account General appeared before the Senate Public Accounts Committee chaired by Senator Mathew Urhoghide to respond to the query , he on behalf of his Office accepted the observation of the Auditor General of the Federation.
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The Committee observed that the Accountant General could not address the query.
The Committee therefore recommended to the Senate that the Account General of the Federation should refund N74 billion in line with Financial regulation .
The Senate adopted the recommendation of the Committee for the refund of N74 billion to the Federation Account.
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