Senate threatens to cut 100 MDA grants from N5trn contingency fund
The Senate on Wednesday threatened to reduce the budgets of more than 100 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) that refused to come before its Public Accounts Committee to account for the Service Wide Vote cash they received (SWV).
Senate President Ahmad Lawan issued the ultimatum after the committee chairman, Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo), raised a point of order during plenary that several heads of agencies that got funding from the SWV had declined multiple invitations to explain how the funds were spent.
The committee is investigating N5 trillion received by over 200 government entities between 2017 and 2021 from SWV, the government’s budget contingency fund.
Urhoghide stated that despite the fact that sections 88 and 89 of the constitution permit the parliament to summon federal government agencies to account for public monies they have received, the affected agencies have stubbornly refused to appear before his committee.
Therefore, he encouraged the president of the Senate to issue an arrest order compelling the agencies to come before the Public Accounts Committee.
In response, the senate president issued a one-week ultimatum to the concerned agencies to appear before the committee or risk having no budget allocation in 2023.
Lawan stated, “I am taking this opportunity to recommend that the agencies indicated here appear before the committee within one week. We will reduce the budgets of the agencies if there is no communication and if no convincing and verifiable justifications are provided.
“Leaders of the concerned agencies must take this matter very seriously, as every public servant must be able to account for public expenditures and, if unable to do so, must resign, as nobody should be above the law.”
Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, ministries of interior, foreign affairs, finance, transportation, health, works and housing, information and culture, mines and steel development, police affairs, defence, youth and sports, petroleum and aviation are some of the agencies.
Others include the State House, Budget Office, Presidential Fleet, Nigerian Army, Navy, Airforce, NAFDAC, civil defence, Presidential Amnesty Programme, FERMA, NEMA, National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Debt Management Office, INEC, North East Development Commission (NEDC), Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), and National Examination Council (NECO).
