Little progress has been achieved by the House of Representatives in its bid to probe the N689.5bn bailouts President Muhammadu Buhari approved for some states in July 2015, according to
PUNCH on Friday.
The money was approved primarily to assist the states to clear a backlog of salaries they inherited and to stabilise the new government for proper governance.
But, more than one year after the money was released to the states; it caught the attention of the House that the same states still owed salaries, a development which called for the investigation.
However, findings
showed that an ad hoc committee of the House charged with the responsibility
had been largely frustrated by key officials and agencies of the Federal
Government, who should have assisted the investigation.
The committee is
chaired by a member of the All Progressives Congress from Adamawa State, Mr.
Sadiq Ibrahim.
Saturday PUNCH
learnt that the committee summoned the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun,
and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, to
explain how the money was disbursed, but both officials shunned the committee.
An official in the
National Assembly, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The committee
invited them to a public hearing on the bailouts (matter), they didn’t come.
“They were invited
specially for a hearing on November 3 and 4, but they didn’t turn up.
“Efforts to retrieve
useful documents from them have been mostly frustrated.”
The Director-General
of the Debt Management Office, Mr. Abraham Nwankwo, also failed to appear at
the hearing.
Some officials of
the DMO told the committee that the office had no information to offer on the
bailouts.
Another official
spoke further, “We wrote the Ministry of Finance and they sent misleading
information to us.
“We wrote them again
and they sent some documents, which didn’t say much…
“The CBN requested
additional time to put its documents together and that was the end of the
story.
“As for the DMO, it
simply said it had no documents on the bailouts.
“The attitude of
these agencies and their heads is an indication of their unwillingness to
collaborate with the National Assembly to ensure accountability and
transparency in public service.”
When Saturday PUNCH
contacted Ibrahim on Friday for the next line of action, he replied that the
investigation was ongoing and had not been concluded.
“I don’t want to say
anything much because we are working.
“The investigation
is still on and the committee is ready to see it through”, he stated.
The lawmaker
declined to speak further on the issue.
The House had in
July passed a resolution to probe how the bailouts were spent, following
allegations that some of the 27 states that benefitted from it, diverted the
money.
Attempts to speak
with the Director-General of DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, proved abortive as calls
to his mobile telephone rang out.
As of the time of
going to the press, he was yet to reply to a text message sent to him asking
questions about the alleged shunning of the House of Representatives’ hearing
by the DMO.
Attempts to get the
comments of the CBN and Adeosun were not successful.
The CBN
spokespersoon, Mr Isaac Okoroafor, did
not answer calls put through to his mobile telephone or respond to a text
message sent to his line.
Similarly, the
spokesperson for the finance minister, Mr. Festus Akanbi, did not answer his
mobile telephone when Saturday PUNCH called him or respond to a text message
sent to him as of the time of sending this report.
PUNCH
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