Reps c’ttee to anti-graft agencies: Recover N72.5bn, $1.8m from MDAs

…Directs EFCC to recover another N2bn from agencies

…Says anti-corruption fight stagnant since 2015

Henry Omunu, Abuja

The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives has ordered the nation’s anti-graft agencies to recover N72.5 billion and over $1,81 million being monies Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) could not account for based on the reports of the auditor-general of the federation 2010 audited reports of MDAs submitted to the National Assembly.

Chairman of House Public Accounts Committee, Rep. Kingsley Chinda (PDP/Rivers), disclosed this on Monday while briefing journalists on the activities of the committee for the past three and half years.

He disclosed that the committee in its report to the House after studying the auditor-general audited reports also directed that the sum of N1, 967, 146, 30.72 $3, 125.00 cash be recovered by the Economic and Financial, Crimes, Commission (EFCC) immediately from indicted MDAs.

“Since the inception of democratic governance in 1999, this is the first time the public accounts committee is submitting a report that was considered and passed by the House.

“Today, we have been able to establish a fully functional Public Account Committee website platform with a server in a committee room.

Our hearing on the auditor-general’s annual reports on the accounts of MDAs covering 2010 and 2016, we met a backlog of reports from 2010 up to 2014 and then we received 2015 and 2016 from the office of the auditor-general.

“Within this period, we have cleared the auditor-general’s report from 2010 to 2014. We have laid the 2010 report before the National Assembly and that report has been considered and passed and we think that is a first we have had in our democratic experience as a nation.

“A total number of 552 MDAs were queried by the office of the auditor-general covering the period 2010 to 2014, of that number, the committee was able to consider 512 of those queries.

“In the course of that consideration, the committee was also able to, in 2010, recover or map out recovery sum of N1, 967, 146, 30.72k. And then, we also referred to the relevant authorities;

that is the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), ICPC and the Nigerian Police, a total sum of N72, 567, 233, 846.49k and $1, 819, 361 for recovery.

“Among the fixed asset, two Peugeot 504 cars, one Peugeot 406 valued N1, 460, 000 and then one berretta pistol and 13 round live ammunition were also sent back to the federal government,” Rep. Chinda declared.

Commenting on the issue of public spending, the House member said not much has changed from the reckless system that the country operates, asserting that public spending is still not very responsible and so we need to begin to change.

“One of the problems we have is that our institutions are very weak, institutions are not strengthened, the government is not making deliberate efforts to strengthen institutions and therefore, when you talk about the fight against corruption you find out that it might not be sustained because the institutions that ought to fight corruption are not strengthened.

“One typical example is the office of the auditor-general of the federation from where we get our raw material.

The good thing that will happen to the fight against corruption is assent to the Audit Commission Bill. We pray that the assent is not refused as usual.

“Several referrals were made to the committee and we considered a bill for an act to repeal the Public Account Committee 2004 successfully and that bill has been repealed by the House of Representatives and it has moved on to Senate for concurrence.

“We also consider referral on the joint investigative hearing with the Committee on Finance to ascertain the status of recovered public funds and assets from 1999 up to 2017 and on the need to investigate tax incentives and waivers granted to multinational corporations in Nigeria,” he stated.

In respect of the contentious service wide vote, Rep. Chinda noted: “That is part of the auditor-general’s query in some of the years that we considered and we also made it explicit that the House Public Accounts Committee of the 8th assembly will not play to the gallery.

“We agreed that we are going to do our work without pushing anybody to the wall and we also agreed that we are not going to be persecutors; we are not going to put anybody on trial, we are only going to do our work and ensure that some of the things that are not done in the past are done.

“If we had gone the way you are looking at the service wide vote, I am not sure that we would have achieved what we have achieved today. So, there are areas that deliberately, we refused to go the old way to enable us achieve what we have achieved.

“That we met backlog of auditor-general reports on MDAs hanging, it is something. Even when we meet our colleagues from other climes, it is a low point on this country.

It’s a low point on our drive against corruption and so we said we must begin to erode that. If that is our only achievement, so be it.”