JONAS EZIEKE, Abuja
The House of Representatives has began investigation into the utilization of Take-off, bail out and intervention funds into the Ministries, Departments and Agencies MDAs of the Federal Government as the key stakeholders lament lack of adequate time to provide requested documents.
This happened as the House Special Committee had refused to take a representative of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Mr Olayemi Cardoso who was represented by the Acting Director Development Finance Mr John Haman at the hearing.
The House had on Thursday March 6, 2025 resolved to investigate and constituted a special Committee to investigate the utilization of take-off grants, bail out and intervention funds allocated to ministries, departments and agencies and government owned enterprises from 2015 to date.
Speaking in an opening remarks at the hearing, Speaker of the House Rt Hon. Tajudeen Abbas said that the investigation is crucial to ascertain the utilization of take-off, bail out and intervention funds in government agencies and other institutions.
Represented by the House Leader Hon. Prof. Julius Ihonvbere the speaker said
that the investigation is being carried out because the House is concerned about transparency and accountability in the use of public funds.
He said that these intervention funds are humongous government funds that are supposed to be accounted for to Nigerians by the government establishments.
He said “It is regrettable that the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN and the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation are yet to submit report to the House Committee on these intervention funds”.
Similarly, Chairman of the House Committee Hon. Chinedu Emeka Martins said that the hearing is a crucial step towards engendaring transparency, accountability and prudence in the use of public funds
He called on the heads of these government agencies to provide relevant information that ‘ll aid the work of the House Committee.
The Imo born lawmaker also stated that any of the invited heads of agencies and stakeholders that failed to submit the request documents on the utilization of these funds would be sanctioned by the panel
At the hearing the House Committee had refused to take presentation from the CBN and the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation AGF as members insisted on the appearance of the heads of these agencies and institutions.
The Committee among others demanded a comprehensive list of all funds allocated to all these agencies including the name of the funds, the source of the fund and the specific purpose for which the fund was intended.
Other documents requested to be submitted by the committee are a detailed account of how these funds had been utilized, including year of allocation, date of release and amount of unspent funds in the bank.
The House Committee Chairman Hon Chinedu who assured that the committee would be through in the latest probe gave the invited agencies notably the CBN and Health Ministry two weeks to re-appear and present the documents.
For a better society
Follow us across our platforms:
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/championnewsonline/
Facebook – https://web.facebook.com/championnewsonline
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/champion-newspapers-limited/
https://x.com/championnewsng/
You can also like and comment on our YouTube videos.
https://youtu.be/QIBfD1tT80w?si=R4Qf3so2LxYu3GC2
