House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee set up to investigate the use of Ecological Fund released to the National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW) has exonerated the management of the agency from alleged fraudulent financial deals.
The committee led by Hon Ismaila Dabo was set up in July following a motion by Hon Ali Lawan Shettima on “the Need to Investigate the Utilisation of Ecological Funds Released to the Great Green Wall by some international organisations from 2015 to date and All Federal Allocations to the National Agency for the Great Green Wall as well as all Contract Awarded to Various Contractors for the Project from 2019 to Date.”
At the inaugural sitting of the c committee, the agency allegedly spent N81.2 billion on the planting of 21 million trees in 11 frontline states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno.
The 15-man committee also queried some of the expenditures under review.
Findings by LEADERSHIP revealed that the director-general/chief executive officer of NAGGW, Dr. Yusuf Maina Bukar, in his presentation before the committee last September, offered clarification on budgetary allocation to the agency.
The DG, who assumed office in April 2022, said N53.42 billion was released to the agency from inception to July 2023, as against the sum of N81.2 billion which the agency was alleged to have spent.
Dismissing the bogus amount mentioned and reported by the media, the DG of the NAGGW maintained that the agency had not acted outside its mandate in the implementation of the Great Green Wall Programme.
He said not all of the N53.42 billion received were used directly on planting activities.
Bukar said, “The NAGGW cost of planting, from inception in 2015 to July 2023, is N5.145 billion. The approximate sum of N7.2 billion balance in the agency’s account are liabilities already committed to ongoing contracts that have been awarded.
“All unutilised funds from capital appropriation are refunded to the federal government Treasury Savings Account (TSA) at the end of the financial year where applicable,” he said.
The committee in its report also faulted the claim of N81.2 billion to the agency.
It said, “Evidence from the hearing indicates that the NAGGW received the sum of N53.425 billion from inception in 2015 to July,2023.”
The committee also stumbled on certain startling revelations during its investigation that the agency did not receive budgetary allocation for 2015 and that ecological funds were not released to the agency until 2019.
The probe panel also discovered that “the percentage of ecological funding going to the agency was reduced from 15 percent provided for by the Act to just five percent with effect from January 2020 to date.”
The committee, in its report, acknowledged paucity and untimely release of funds, inability to access foreign assistance and absence of a governing board as some of the factors hindering the performance of the agency.
The lawmakers frowned at the reduction in the statutory allocation to the agency by fiat, and urged government, as a matter of urgency, to revert the Ecological Fund releases to the agency back to 15 percent as provided for by the NAGGW Act.
“That the total sum of N20.168 billion being the shortfall of the reduction from the Ecological Fund for January 2020 to date, be immediately released to the agency to fund its activities.”
Other recommendations of the committee read in part, “Similarly, the Ecological Fund Office should calculate, remit to the NAGGW the total sums due to the agency from the Ecological Fund from 2015 to 2018.
“Urge the National Agency for the Great Green Wall to as a matter of urgency include the frontline states of Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe in the fourth phase of the afforestation projects which is to commence soon.
“There is an urgent need for the agency to undertake recruitment of staff, especially for its offices in the front line states; need for a greater collaboration and synergy between the NAGGW and the Federal Ministry of Environment.”
The panel further urged the federal government to constitute a governing board for the agency.
It also recommended the need for extensive enlightenment of the general public on the sustainable use of the forest for preservation.
Apart from submissions by the Federal Ministry of Environment, the Central Bank of Nigeria, Office of the Accountant-general of the Federation and the Ecological Project Office, the committee also undertook on-the-spot assessment visit to project sites in some of the frontline states of Kano, Jigawa and Sokoto.
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