Senate demands establishment of agency to manage N596bn ecological fund

For proper accountability of the N596, 137, 481, 709 ecological funds, the Senate has demanded the establishment of an agency of government to manage the funds.

The Senate’s demand is in line with the observation made by the office of auditor general over the years without positive response. This revelation came to the fore on Tuesday at the ongoing public hearing by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.

Senate committee Chairman, Senator Mathew Uhroghide (Edo South) expressed displeasure over the continuous absence of heads of government agencies at the public hearing.

The ministries, department and agencies were expected to defend various allegations levelled against some of them indicted by the audit report of the office of the auditor general.

In the report made available to the Daily Times, N596, 137, 481, 709 was deducted from the federation account to the Ecological Fund between June 1999 and December 2015.

The report read that “meanwhile, contrary to the provision of Section 5(4) of the Revenue Allocation Act which requires that an agency be established to manage the funds, no agency has been established.

“Currently, the National Committee on Ecological Problems is the body responsible for handling ecological problems in the country.

This committee is located in the office of the secretary to the government of the federation and its chairman is the minister of environment.”

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Efforts to get the office of the Accountant General, Ahmed Idris to respond proved abortive as Kolawole Taiwo, who represented the accountant general failed to furnish the Senate committee with all requested documents.

However, the Permanent Secretary, Ecological Fund Office, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mrs. Habiba Lawal, gave a vivid explanation.

She said the current sharing formula of the 2.32 percent fund is that the federal government gets one per cent, states get 0.72 per cent while local governments get 0.06 per cent.

Speaking further, she said that out of the federal government’s one per cent managed by her office, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) gets 20 per cent, the Great Green Wall gets 15 per cent and the North East Development Commission gets 10 per cent.

The permanent secretary said the fund is housed in the Central Bank of Nigeria under the custody of the finance minister, adding that her office only oversight funds approved by the Presidency for project implementation.

The committee chairman gave the erring agencies another two weeks grace to submit their reports.