CBN Others Trade Blame Over Missing N59.6bn

There was drama yesterday over  the status of N59.6bn allegedly released to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ( NNPC)  as the company,  Office of the Accountant General of the federation ( OAGF) the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Budget Office engaged in buck passing.

The money was allegedly released to NNPC in 2006 from the Service Wide Vote.

At the second day of investigative hearing on the alleged missing money by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Account , the trio of CBN,Budget Office and AGF traded blames on who should be held responsible for the missing money.

On Tuesday when the hearing kicked off, the committee tongue lashed CBN, Budget Office and AGF for refusing to provide answers to what happened to the money. It ordered heads of the organisations to appear before it yesterday.

NNPC had denied  receipt of the said amount from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation as approved by the Budget office, the officials led by the Executive Director Finance, Mr. Sambo Aliyu again told the Committee that the NNPC actually sought a letter of clearance from the Budget Office and the OAGF indicating that the N69.6 billion requested was never released to it as claimed. A request he said, was turned down.

However, in what seemed like a belated face-saving attempt by the OAGF, an unsigned photocopy of  a letter indicating the non-release of the money and return of same was presented before the Committee with the original missing from the correspondence file of the OAGF and a register with an entry made with pencil devoid of any signature whatsoever.

This, the Director of Finance and Accounts in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Fatima Nanamade tried to substantiate saying that, “the letter actually emanated from the OAGF but the original copy of the AIE is with the Budget Office”.

The Committee not pleased with her submission pointed out that as a matter of professional competence and effectiveness, the agencies should keep comprehensive document of correspondence of transactions between one another, whilst rejecting the unsigned photocopy presented to it.

On the part of the Budget Office, the Director Expenditure, Stella Toluwase told the Committee that the original AIE request sent to the OAGF was never returned as claimed as the office does not have it in their record.

She however said that the photocopy they came with was discovered after searching through the office archives following the demand by the Committee to see the document.

Reacting to the development, the Committee Chairman, Hon. Olamilekan Solomon Adeola (APC-Lagos) expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the agencies and seized the correspondence register and file presented to his Committee by the OAGF.

“If for more than a month of investigation, none of you could come up with relevant documents to back up your claim of returning the still missing N59.6 billion then you have betrayed the professions you all represent”. I cannot accept this letter that has no signature or stamp because, for all I care, this could have been written yesterday or last week. If it this letter has an original copy which is natural, then we want to see it brought here for verification and documentation by our secretariat”.

He went further to demand all relevant documents of transactions involving the OAGF with a view to identifying clues leading to the where about of the missing fund.

“I want to see all the certified true copies of all mandates issued by the Budget Office and sent to the OAGF and also relayed to the CBN for compliance from January to December 2006. A copy of the Federation Account revealing all transactions within that year so that at a glance, we can pick out where ever it is the fund has gone to”.

The agencies were given one week to turn in all documents requested for the conclusion of the investigation.