No Letter For N1.7bn Collected From Service Wide Vote, PCC Tells Senate

The Public Complaint Commission yesterday failed to present a letter of request for the collection of N1.7 billion from Service Wide Votes (SWV) between 2017 to 2021 to the Senate Panel.

At the beginning of the investigative hearing, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Account, Mathew Urhoghide, had told the PCC team of the total amount of funds collected from SWV and requested chief commissioner, Abimbola Ayo-Yusuf to present the letter requesting for the Service Wide Votes.

But, the chief commissioner failed to present a letter of request from the Service Wide Votes.

“I don’t have the letters requesting for the Service Wide Votes,” he said.

However, there was a mild drama as the chairman of Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges who oversees the PCC said that he was unaware that N852 million came from Service Wide Votes without his knowledge.

The chief commissioner however vowed to look for letters of the request and present them before the Panel on November 1.

Also, the Defence Headquarters, Ministry of Foreign Affairs , Assets Management Company of Nigeria Budget Office among others boycotted an investigative hearing organised by Senate Public Account Committee (SPAC) on utilisation of Service Wide Votes.

The 14 MDA scheduled to appear before the Committee chaired by Senator Mathew Urhoghide collected N857 billion from the Service Wide Votes as it was learnt that some agencies collected from the votes fund that is even bigger than their annual budget .

The Committee is proving utilisation of the Service Wide Votes between 2017 to 2021 which is about N5 trillion, as over 200 agencies are expected to defend the utilisation of the fund secretly collected without involving the National Assembly Committees as mandated by the Constitution to oversee them.

Lamenting about the attitude of the agencies that have ignored the Committee, The chairman said that there is a problem of accountability among the government agencies in the country which is against the provision of the constitution.

He said the the affected agencies should have respect for the rule of law and come and give account of the money collected from Service Wide Votes without involving the National Assembly Committee mandated to oversight them

The Chairman said, “ I don’t know the audacity they have to choose not to appear before the National Assembly Committee.

“We are going ruthlessly against all of them, we are going to issue a warrant of arrest against any agency which fails to honour the invitation.”

According to the record, Budget Office Collected – N68bn, Refugee Commission – N10.2bn, Defence – N579bn, AMCON- N8.13 bn, Civil Defence – N4.9 billion, Foregin Affairs – N96.6bn, Military- N66.8 billion, SGF- N23.9 billion and NEMA – N2.3 billion collected from Service Wide Votes between 2017 to 2021, Air Force – N14 billion