Reps Give Fire Service 7-Day Ultimatum To Refund N1.48bn COVID-19 Fund

The House of Representatives has directed the Federal Fire Service to refund the N1.484 billion COVID-19 intervention fund, which it failed to account for, to the Federal Government within seven days.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House, chaired by Hon. Bamidele Salam, issued this directive after the Service failed to respond to its invitation to explain the expenditure of the funds.

The Committee’s Deputy Chairman, Hon. Jeremiah Umar, moved the motion for the refund, expressing frustration at the Fire Service’s disregard for the Committee’s summons, especially when other agencies have cooperated with ongoing investigations.

Umar stated that since the Service did not appear to explain the fund’s utilisation, it should return the money to the federation’s coffers.

Hon. Salam ruled that the Fire Service must refund the N1.484 billion collected as the COVID-19 intervention fund for 2020/2021 and submit evidence of the refund within seven days.

The Committee also issued fresh invitations to other defaulting Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to explain various queries from the Auditor General of the Federation regarding billions of Naira allocated as intervention funds during COVID-19.

The affected entities include the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (N50.5 billion), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (N33 billion), Federal Ministry of Women Affairs through the National Centre for Women Development (N625 million), National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) (N25 billion), and the Federal Ministry of Health (N10 billion).

The Committee Chairman noted that the Federal Fire Service had ignored the panel’s summons three times consecutively, while the other MDAs failed to appear twice each. He warned that these groups have one week to appear or face sanctions.

“A public officer who fails to satisfactorily respond to the Auditor-General’s query within 21 days for failure to collect due Government Revenue shall be surcharged and transferred to another schedule.

“If an officer fails to reply satisfactorily to an audit query within 7 days for failure to account for government revenue, such an officer shall be surcharged for the full amount involved and handed over to either the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC),” he added.