By Christiana Ekpa
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts on Monday gave six heads of federal government agencies and higher educational institution seventy-two hours ultimatum to appear before the panel to answer queries emanating form the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation against them.
This was just as the House Committee further insisted that the the latest invitation of the six agencies and institution is the last warning before a warrant of arrest would be issued and signed against the heads of the agencies
The six federal government agencies and institution include the Rural Electrification Agency, Nigeria Upstream Regulatory Authority, the Nigeria Satellite Communications Ltd NIGCOMSAT, the Nigeria Export Promotion Council, the Export Processing Zone Authority and the Federal University of Petroleum Resources Effurun.
Chairman of the Committee Hon.Bamidele Salam gave ultimatum
following the agencies refusal to honour the invitation sent to them by the panel.
According to the House Committee Chairman, the invitation of the heads of the aforementioned agencies to the investigative hearing was to answer questions on the queries from the report of the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation to the committee.
At the committee meeting on Monday, the Committee Chairman noted that out of the six invited entities, only the Rural Electrification Agency sent letters to the committee asking that the chief executive officer of the agency be excused from attendance at the hearing
He further hinted that the issue under investigation extends to the probe of cash advances and misapplication of funds budgeted by the House in some of the agencies.
He said:”we are going to use our constitutional power to ensure that every kobo spent by the MDAs is prudently spent.
“I plead with with my esteemed committee members to give these agencies a second chance to appear”.
Other committee members as Hon.Ademorin Kuye (Lagos,APC) and Hon Billy Osawaru (Edo,APC) had earlier expressed displeasure over the attitude of chief executives of government agencies to parliamentary invitations and called for appropriate sanctions.
In his final ruling, the House Committee Chairman Hon.Salam said that the heads of the six agencies and institution should appear before the constitutional committee of the House on Thursday November 2,2023 at 10:00am unfailingly.
