Reps order CBN to refund N1billion double payment to govt coffers

By Lawrence Olaoye

The House of Representatives yesterday ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to return N1.015 billion being a duplicated payment for the printing of ballot papers for the 2007 Presidential election to the coffers of the federal.

The order, made by the House committee on public accounts chaired by Rep Solomon Olamilekan was sequel to the inability of the apex bank to explain the transaction allegedly paid for twice by the government.

PAC had invited the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, the Permanent Secretary of State House, Emmanuel Ogbila, as well as the Acting Governor of CBN, Sarah Alade to give accounts of the transaction.

Dipo Fatokun, Director, Corporate Services, who represented the CBN, in his submission said there was no double payment for the transaction.

“There was no double payment for the transaction. When we first appeared before the Committee, we did not check our records very well and that was why we thought there were double payment.

“But now, we have checked our records very well and discovered that there were no double payments. Our records showed that there was no payment made for the memo from the State House because it was Kept in View (KIV).

The Committee however doubted the submission of the CBN representative.

According to the Committee,State House statement of account generated from CBN showed that cheques for the transaction and debit entries were contradictory.

Two cheques for N262m and N763m could not be found in the statement while two debit figure of N10.5m and N1.4b in respect of the transaction were suspicious.

The Committee also expressed suspicion over the legitimacy of the transaction as the money remitted to South Africa for the supply was less than what was approved.