Politics
Senate moves to recover N76bn loan from INEC, Army, others
The Senate has commenced the process of recovering N76 billion loans from some agencies via the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (AuGF).
In order to achieve this mandate, it has mandated the AuGF to halt further withdrawals from the special funds account without the approval of the National Assembly.
The resolution of the Senate followed its consideration of the report of its Public Accounts Committee on the 2015 report of the Auditor-General for the Federation (AuGF) before embarking on its annual vacation.
According to the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, some of the defaulting agencies include the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigerian Army, Office of National Security Adviser, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), among others.
The report revealed that N10billion was given to INEC as a loan to finance the 2015 general elections.
Read also: QuickRead: INEC exposes lawmakers. Four other stories we tracked and why they matter
The report further showed that an additional N7 billion was paid to INEC bringing the total loans advanced to the agency on January 12, 2015, to N17.92billion. According to the report, the loan has not been repaid.
The Nigerian Army, according to the report, was loaned N4.7 billion from the N31.4billion, while NYSC received N6.4 billion to fund its activities, including the passing out of corps members at its orientation camps.
The report of the AuGF said the money was not approved by the National Assembly before the AuGF released it to the agencies.
The query reads: “It was observed from the 2014 audited accounts that mandate No FD/LP2014/57/1/82/DF dated 12th of January 2015 amounting to N7billion was withdrawn from one per cent Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme Levy as loan to INEC to finance 2015 elections.
“The loan is contrary to the purpose for which the fund was created. It is to fund the destination Inspection Service Providers as provided in the law because they are not paid from the annual budget.”
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