How FG allegedly lavished N4.7trn in 8yrs, by Reps

How FG allegedly lavished N4.7trn in
8yrs, by Reps
on december 23, 2013 at 2:58 am in news
-Say Obasanjo spent N250m a year on Charles
Tailor
BY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE
ABUJA—The Public Accounts Committee, PAC, of
the House of Representatives revealed at the
weekend that over N4 trillion was spent from 2004
to 2012 by the Federal Government from Service-
wide Vote without the approval of the National
Assembly.
The committee said due process was not followed
in the manner such a huge sum was lavished,
noting that it contravened Section 80 of 1999
constitution.
House of Representatives during plenary
The committee also alleged that between 2005 and
2006, the government of former President Olusegun
Obasanjo spent N250 million to feed former
President of Liberia, Charles Taylor and his family,
who were on an asylum in the country.
Chairman of PAC, Adeola Olamilekan (APC-Lagos),
who disclosed these at a briefing of journalists, said
the expenditure was made without parliamentary
approval, starting from the government of President
Obasanjo to that of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Olamilekan explained that “most of the expenditures
to which the Service-wide Vote releases were
deployed are routine in nature and did not qualify
for emergency funding.
“For instance, between 2004 and 2012, a total of
N1, 284,853,731.20 was spent on publicity and
publication of various government programmes.
“Between 2004 and 2005, N250 million was spent
on the upkeep of the former Liberian President,
Charles Taylor, another N14,006,494.847.57 was
also released from the Service-wide Vote for the
payment of judgement debts against the Federal
Government.
“The office of the Accountant-General of the
Federation, Budget Office and the Ministry of
Finance released to their various offices a total of
N2, 267,002,101 to a few auditors as audit fees and
in 2011 alone, the Office of the Accountant-General
of the Federation paid out N809,358,504 as audit
fees to some external auditors carrying out audit of
the Federal Government financial activities instead
of the Office of the Auditor-General of the
Federation.”
He also alleged that over N160 million was released
for the Budget and Accountant General’s offices.
He said further: “The expenditure of N162million
from the 2011 Service Wide Votes releases tagged;
“Closing Accounts” incurred jointly by the Office of
the Accountant-General and the Budget Office of
the Federation.
“An expenditure of
N1,059,177,589.31($6,619,859.93 at the rate of
$1=N160) in 201 and 2011 said to payment of
outstanding tax on Nigeria House in New York.
“Successive governments have from 2004 to 2012.
Spent a whopping N4.17 trillion  as against
N1.8trillion approved by the National Assembly as
Service Wide Votes component of the budgets of
those years, translating to N2.27trillion extra
budgetary spending or 220% above the Service
Wide Votes as approved in the budget for the
period.”
He explained that “such extra-budgetary
expenditures constitute a breach of Section 81 of
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
1999(as amended) and an illegality.”
Olamilekan also said PAC  discovered in the course
of its oversight that the Service-Wide Vote was
converted to a recurrent fund by the government,
instead of an infrastructure vote.
“Such releases were mainly used to finance
recurrent expenses not targeted at critical and
strategic sectors of the economy and the releases
were random and did not follow any clear pattern.
“The Service Wide Votes had become an alternative
budget which government prefers to patronize than
the annual budget, leading to poor implementation of
the annual budget as approved by the National
Assembly,” he added.
The report was earlier last Thursday presented by
Olamilekan to the House which resolved that the
committee should do more on its findings and
present another report within two weeks.
The Service Wide Wide is the fund set aside for
emergency purposes.