The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts on Monday directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (IPCC) to quiz two former Permanent Secretaries in the Federal Ministry of Labour, Williams Alo, and Yerima Tafa over a N3, 201,583,662.65 financial infraction while in office as contained in the audit query by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
The Committee chaired by Rep Bamidele Salam (PDP, Osun) lamented the continued refusal of the officials of the Ministry to honour several invitations extended to it to defend audit queries from the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
Speaking after the adoption of a motion moved to seek the intervention of the antigraft agencies to recover the money, the Chairman of the Committee, Rep Bamidele Salam said that the Committee had written seven different letters to the Ministry to appear before It without any response and without giving any reason for not appearing.
He added the Ministry also failed to provide the relevant documents needed to clear them of the 32 audit queries against them from the 2020 audit report.
Salam said although the Auditor General for the Federation made specific recommendations, the Committee decided to write the Ministry.to allow them an opportunity to defend themselves, adding that the Minister had consistently refused to honour the invitation.
He lamented that several other MDAs have cultivated the habit of ignoring parliamentary summon to account for public funds appropriated by the National Assembly and given to them, adding the the Nigerian public have in recent time call out the National Assembly for not carrying out adequate oversight.
According to him, the Senate Committee on Public Accounts had to state some MDAs for their refusal to appear, adding that the House Committee will not continue to waste its time inviting agencies that will not respect the constitutional authority of the National Assembly.
He said Williams Alo and Yerima Tafa who were the Permanent Secretaries in the Ministry when the infraction took place should be held liable for the infraction since they were the accounting officers in the ministry.
The committee also gave the current Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Saliu Usman 72 hours within to appear before it to respond to the seven audit queries from the Auditor General for the 2021 financial year or risk having the committee upholding the recommendations of the Auditor General.
The Permanent Secretaries in the Federal ministries of Transportation, Women Affairs and Humanitarian Services, Adeleye Ayodeji, Mariam Keshero and Yakubu Adams Kofamata respectively are also to appear before the committee within the next 72 hours.
The Chairman pointed out that the committee was making efforts to address the queries contained in both the 2020 and 2021 audit reports before the 2022 report was submitted in April.
and then