Ayodele Adegbuyi
—Missing N59.6bn:
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has summoned three principal officers of the government to appear before it today to shed light on the alleged missing N59.6 billion Service Wide Vote in 2006.
Those invited are the Accountant General of the Federation, (AGF), Mr Jonah Otunla, the acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Dr Sarah Alade, and the Executive Director of Finance, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Chairman of the committee, Olamilekan Adeola, who issued the summon, also mandated the AGF to bring all bank transactions between July and December 2006, a copy of the federation account, and copies of statements of accounts through the CBN for the period under review.
He said: “If there was any mandate on the said missing N59.6 billion it will show at a glance.
“We are tired of all the excuses of all the agencies involved claiming ignorance at one stage or the other.”
The General Manager, Accounts, at the NNPC, Mr Sambo Aliyu, had, during cross-examination, tendered a letter written by the Budget Office in response to the NNPC’s request to know the whereabouts of the missing fund.
According to him, the Budget Office had responded with an explanation that the money was released to the NNPC.
But when prompted about the whereabouts of the money released to the NNPC, Aliyu said: “The cash was not released. We did not see any money.”
His response further infuriated members of the committee, who unanimously agreed that all the relevant agencies should be summoned once again.
Also, when the representative of the CBN, Mr Dipo Fatokun, was asked to explain what he knew about the missing fund, he simply answered, “We will need to get the mandate from the AGF.”
This comment drew further anger from members who declared that Fatokun should come along with CBN acting governor today as his responses so far had not been encouraging.
Also, when queried on the missing fund, Mrs. Tayo Toluwase, a director in the Budget Office, simply said she did not have all the relevant details on the issue.
