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•COVID-19 & genotype. Image source: Infectious Disease Advisor
The House of Representatives has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission to recover the monies allocated to Federal Government Ministries, Department and Agencies to tackle the coronavirus pandemic which ravaged the world a few years ago.
The decision followed the receipt of the report of the Committee on Public Accounts on a motion concerning the alleged mismanagement of COVID-19 Intervention Funds disbursed to some Ministries, Departments, and Agencies from 2020-2022.
The report was laid on Thursday before the House by the Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Mr Bamidele Salam.
Recall that on June 11, 2024, the committee submitted the first part of the report which revealed a trail of mismanagement, non-compliance, and outright violations of procurement laws and financial regulations by various MDAs and private sector beneficiaries.
The report which quoted records from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, gave a breakdown of inflows totalling N1.32tn.
While giving a breakdown of the report on Thursday, Salam disclosed that the report is a result of work done in collaboration with various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government.
Adopting the recommendation of the committee, the House mandated the EFCC and ICPC “To provide comprehensive information on funds recovered from MDAs on COVID-19 intervention funds to the Public Accounts Committee and the House Committee on Finance.”
The House also directed the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to provide evidence of remittances/mop-up of unspent funds on COVID-19 intervention funds from MDAs.
The House “strongly cautions all Chief Accounting Officers of MDAs, Medical Directors of Medical institutions, Directors of Finance and Accounts or Bursars with their Tender Board Members to stop awarding contracts above their statutory threshold and ensure they always obtain BPP approval for future procurements, in line with relevant extant laws.”
After laying the report, the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu who presided over the plenary after Speaker Tajudeen Abbas left the chambers, referred the report to the Committee of the Whole and adopted the recommendations.
