By Christiana Ekpa
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives on Monday expressed dismay over the insufficient and inadequate documents submitted before it by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investments over the alleged mismanagement of N75 billion allocated to it as COVID-19 Intervention funds by the Federal Government.
The Committee being Chaired by Hon Bamidele Salam ( Osun-PDP) currently probing Ministries Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of the Federal Government over the alleged massive mismanagement of COVID-19 intervention funds at the resumed hearing of the exercise in Abuja said that the submission of the Ministry on the expenditure of the N75 billions “ is a worthless piece of document which doesn’t say anything.”
The Committee at its last sitting had ordered the Ministry, its immediate past and the incumbent Permanent Secretaries to jointly refund the sum of N75 billion allocated to it as COVID-19 intervention funds after the refusal of officials of the ministry to appear before the Committee to defend the expendables
However, when the incumbent Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Ambassador Nura Abba Rimi appeared before the Committee on Monday, he said that he only assumed office at the Ministry on the 21st of January this year
He apologized for the failure of the ministry to appear before the Constitutional Committee three consecutive times to defend the expendables as requested.
At this point, a member of the Committee Hon Bassey Akiba raised a point of order for entertaining the Ministry again after a decision had been taken over its matter and which has not been been se aside.
According to him, “Mr. Chairman, Honourable Colleagues, let us even look at the issue of whether or not we should listen to the ministry and that for me is very important, I am the mover of the motion that a refund should be made because for me it was a clear case of disregard for the Committee and National Assembly that is why I moved that motion.
“ Having given that ministry this number of times to appear and they failed to appear, it shows clearly that the ministry do not have anything to say about the expenditure of the money and that is why I moved that motion and it was duly seconded and the motion was passed by the committee and I am sure that if not because of the break that we had, that the house would’ve considered the position of the committee, having come here this morning and I saw Ministry of Industry, trade and investment on our schedule, I think we are looking at other things outside COVID, maybe we are looking at issues concerning Auditor General’s queries on that ministry for a certain year, when I look the schedule this morning, it was still COVID, I don’t think it is proper, going by our own practice that if the house has ruled on a matter that we need to bring it back again, maybe because of the magnanimity of the Chairman that he granted based on some reasons and you come, again there is a background here that the chamber has saying before you appear do a writing submission which again was abnormal for a matter that had been ruled over by the Committee, do a writing submission the chairman was just trying to be kind, let’s still give you fair hearing even when we have ruled,
“ Honestly it should be something we need to discuss and consider whether or not we should receive any document or anything.”
