The Senate on Wednesday directed 59 Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the government to return over N300bn misappropriated funds to the federation account within 60 days.
The chamber ordered the erring agencies to recover all the monies illegally spent from 2013 to 2015 as contained in an audit report of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
This decision was reached after the consideration of the report of the Committee on Public Accounts on the annual report of the AuGF on the accounts of the federation for the year ended December 31, 2015 (Part I &II).
The committee observed that the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) mismanaged N995 million; the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, N1.77 billion; the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), N68.9 billion, $2.3 million and €196,000; the Nigerian Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), N4.35 billion; the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), N8.84 billion; the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, N821.9m; the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), N1.88 billion and the Mortgage Bank, N369 million.
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The committee’s chairman, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, said 114 MDAs were queried in the 2015 audit report, 59 of which had their queries sustained after probe.
Senator Ibrahim Gobir suggested that the report be sent to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ensure recovery of the fund.
However, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan said, “My advice will be, let us monitor the implementation. After the 60 days of grace, then we can take the next appropriate action.”
