The House of Representatives has invited the accountant-general of the federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, to appear before it on the financial discrepancies in the National Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).
The chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Hon James Faleke, extended the invitation at the panel’s ongoing hearing on monitoring the revenue of federal Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.
The committee queried the NPC for recording expedited expenditures of N3.15 billion despite submitting a revenue of N2.89 billion in the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year.
The director of Finance and Administration of NPC, Akwada James, told the committee that the amount was the projected expenditure for the year.
According to him, this is because the commission’s income does not come at a certain time; hence, it has “committed spending in the budget for the year.”
Faleke, while wondering how the agency could budget for what it had not done yet, said: “The revenue collection for first quarter 2024 is 2.89 billion and your expenditure for that same period is N3.15 billions.
“If you are giving us revenue for a quarter, the expenditure for that quarter should be stated, not the whole. How can you give me expenditure for the whole year?”
Faleke retorted the NPC official’s response that it was the format the budget office gave to the agency.
“No, sir, we don’t like that format here. It’s confusing. How can you tell me you generated N2.8 billion and, on record, you spent N3.1 billion? We asked where you got the money and who gave you the authority to spend above budget?”
The Committee also queried the agency for spending 20 percent of its revenue in 2023, insisting that a fully funded agency is supposed to remit its revenue 100 percent.
“So you spent money illegally. On what authority did you approve the usage of that money?” I would like to see a letter authorising you to spend that 20 percent; otherwise, we would charge all of you personally.
“We would write and ask that the money spent be deducted from your salaries until it is fully refunded. I need that letter on Monday.
“Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), I need a report of your sessions with NIPC and why they spent 20 percent of their IGR and there has not been any query from your agency,” Faleke said.
But the chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Victor Mururako, represented by Mrs Victoria Adizou-Angakuru, said it had not received NIPC’s audited financial statements since 2019.
“The best approach is to invite the accountant general. Given the contradictions, we would keep our documents and let the accountant general come and tell us what is responsible for these discrepancies for a fully funded agency,” Faleke said.
