Senate gives Finance Ministry, Accountant General, NSA 6 days to explain N7.5bn ‘secret withdrawal’
Tunde Opalana, Abuja
The Federal Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and Office of National Security Adviser have been given a six days ultimatum till next week Tuesday to explain their roles in the alleged “secret withdrawal’ of N7.5 billion from the two percent National Automotive Council Design and Development Council (NADDC) Levy Account domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday gave this ultimatum during a further investigative hearing session at the National Assembly.
The Committee under the chairmanship of Sen. Mathew Urhoghide (PDP Edo) had a fortnight ago summoned the affected agencies to appear before the Committee. The agencies, however failed to honour the scheduled appointment yesterday.
This is also as the Committee vowed to take drastic action should monies unauthoritatively taken not returned back to government coffers.
Shedding light on details of the withdrawal during his presentation, the Director General of the National Automotive Council Design and Development Council , Jelani Tukur said that that NADDC has already written to Minister of Finance, Ahmed Zainab and Accountant General of the Federation “on the withdrawal of N3.7 billion as loan to NAFCON, withdrawal of N3.8 billion for security personnel car loan scheme and another withdrawal of N2.3 billion as loan to Steyrs Nigeria Limited” .
He added that the agency had also written a letter to remind Niger Insurance Plc on the agreement reached on July 9th 2020 as ordered by the Committee .
“The first letters were written to Minister of Finance and Accountant General of the Federation on 23 April, 2021 and were delivered to the Minister and Accountant General of the Federation on on 26 April, 2021.
“The second was written to the Minister on 26th of April and was delivered to the Minister on 27th April while that of Accountant General of the Federation were delivered on 26th of April”, he said.
The Committee chairman, Senator Urhoghide mandated all parties involved in the withdrawal of money to be present next week Tuesday to explain roles played by their agencies and to give the Committee commitment of repaying the money back to the account of NADDC’s domiciled in Central Bank .
He also asked them to come with evidence of the approval.
The query had said, “A total sum of N3,836,000,000.00 (Three billion, eight hundred and thirty-six million naira) was irregularly withdrawn from the 2% National Automotive Council Levy Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Abuja in 2 installments of N2,800,000,000 (in 2005) and N1,036,000,000.00 (in 2006) by the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Finance as car loan to be granted for the Security Personnel Car Purchase Scheme Loan.
“The transaction was carried out by the Presidency in collaboration with the Bank of Industry, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Accountant-General of the Federation without the involvement of NAC, the account owner.
“However the principal and the accrued interest from the fictitious loan have not been paid back nor are records available on the beneficiaries, agreement documents, moratorium, duration of the loan, the yearly interest rates accruable and how the fund will be paid back by the beneficiary.
“The Director General has been requested to intensify correspondence with the Honourable Minister of Finance, Accountant-General of the Federation and the Presidency to recover the fund (‘loan’).”
