Reps Raise Panel To Probe Inclusion Of PFIPC In Budgetary Allocation

The House of Representatives on Wednesday established an Ad Hoc Committee to investigate how the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) was included in the 2026 Appropriation framework.

The committee, chaired by the member representing Pankshin/Kanam/Kanke federal constituency of Plateau state, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi, is mandated to trace the provision from the executive budget proposal through committee consideration to passage and identify the stage at which it was introduced.

The House also agreed to invite the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu and the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, to clarify the verification procedures applied before new entities are admitted into the budget.

These resolutions followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by Hon. Gagdi(APC, Plateau State).

Moving the motion, the lawmaker alluded to reports that a budgetary provision in excess of N1.3 billion attributable to the entity found its way into the 2026 Appropriation framework.

He wondered why a body without any authentic instrument of establishment could enter the federal budget, and scrutiny safeguards failed to detect it.

Gagdi expressed concern that the ease with which a single unestablished entity progressed through official processes suggests a systemic vulnerability rather than an isolated lapse.

He observed that other fictitious entities might have reflected in past or current budget frameworks, threatening the credibility of the Appropriation Act and the integrity of the appropriation function of the National Assembly.

Just to let you know, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, already obliges the Executive to account to the National Assembly, including through Section 19, prescribing the documents that must accompany the Annual Budget.

“Section 30, requiring quarterly budget implementation reports to the Joint Finance Committee of the National Assembly; and Section 50, requiring quarterly and consolidated annual budget execution reports; and cognisant of Sections 80, 81, 88 and 89 of the Constitution, which vest in the National Assembly the control of public funds and the power to investigate their disbursement,” he stated.

The House, upon the adoption of the motion, mandated the ad hoc committee to ensure that all ministries, departments, agencies, and other bodies reflected in the 2025 and 2026 Appropriation frameworks are verified against their instruments of establishment.

The panel is also to receive briefings from the relevant security and anti-corruption agencies without prejudice to the proceedings pending before the Federal High Court, and to report back within four weeks for further legislative action.