By Paul Effiong, Abuja.
House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, PAC, has requested for details of all the extra-budgetary expenditure incurred by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council, NIPC, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Investments and Securities Tribunal, IST, as well as the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE.
Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, Bamidele Salam gave the rulings separately yesterday during an investigative hearing of the audit queries issued to Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of federal government on remittances of revenue to the federation account.
The committee therefore grilled some Chief Executive Officers, CEOs, of agencies present and those represented by their directors.
The committee also queried the N1.76 billion gross liability incurred by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council, even as it also demanded for relevant documents on its remittances into the federation account.
The PAC chairman asked some agencies to reconcile their account with the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, FRC, alongside the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation before their next appearance before the committee.
Similarly, the House also grilled the JAMB registrar on its liability of over N3.60 billion to the federation account and demanded that it should go and remit the operating surplus.
The lawmakers and other committee members were infuriated that the letter sent to the panel by a Director, Mukhtar Bello, as the representative of the JAMB CEO, was not signed.
The House also queried why N.3 billion was paid to some contractors by the Investments and Securities Tribunal, saying available documents submitted by the agency showed that it was misappropriation of funds.
The panel also grilled the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr Ayodeji Gbeleyi over N400 million out the N10 billion NIPOST intervention fund given to the agency to kick of its subsidiaries-NIPOST Property Development Company Limited and NIPOST Logistics Limited.
The chairman and other members of the panel demanded details of the expenditure incurred by these agencies year to year, as well as annual audited accounts
The committee also summoned the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr Ayodeji Gbeleyi to appear before it unfailingly on Wednesday, September 11 at 11am.
