In its quest to unearth how about N5 trillion was spent by some federal government agencies, the Senate on Wednesday summoned the Budget Office of the Federation, State House, and other agencies.
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts is launching an investigation into how 252 government agencies including the State House benefited from the N5 trillion Service Wide Votes between 2017 and 2021.
Service Wide Vote (SWV) known as the Consolidated Revenue Fund Charge is the country’s contingency fund provided for in the annual budget.
The decision of the Senate to investigate the votes was as a result of the discovery by the Senate that many agencies collected funds from SWV without the approval of the National Assembly panels empowered by law to perform oversight functions on the agencies.
According to the Chairman of the Public Account Committee, Senator Mathew Urhoghide, the votes had become a major component of the nation’s budget considering the amount budgeted annually for it in the budget.
He said the committee would ascertain how the money collected from votes was expended, adding “there is confusion on the approval of the votes.”
“We want to see how this money is being expended. There is confusion on approval, and we want to really get to know what is going on.
“Any agency who fails to appear, the committee will not hesitate to issue a warrant of arrest on the head of the agency because it has been discovered that many agencies collected this fund without informing the National Assembly committee saddled with the responsibility to overnight the agency,” he said.
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