NDLEA fails to defend unapproved spending of N356 million

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has failed to justify the expenditure of N356 million before the Senate Public Accounts Committee Chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide.

The Committee had invited NDLEA over alleged unapproved spending and failure to account for advances granted to some of its officials.

The Senate Panel hinged the Investigation on the 2016 Auditor General’s report which is currently under consideration before the Senate Committee on Public Account.

At the resumption of the hearing, the Chairman of the Committee sustained Auditor General’s queries on alleged spending of N43 million on revocation and purchase of operational vehicles without approval, failure to refund N42 million cash advances, N12 million spent on renovation of Jigawa office without approval and purchase of N90 million operational vehicles without approval from Ministerial Tender Board.

The Panel also gave the NDLEA 24 hours to justify the spending of N169 million as security votes which they failed to provide as at the time of filing this report.

Spirited efforts of the representative of the Director-General of NDLEA, Abdullahi Shittu, was not acceptable before the Committee as Senator Urhoghide ordered a refund of the money spent without Appropriations.

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Urhoghide said: ” We will sustain the query of Auditor General’s report against your agency and the money spent illegally should be refunded.”

The query reads, “A sum of N169,336,264.36 (One hundred and sixty-nine million, three hundred and thirty-six thousand, two hundred and sixty-four naira, thirty-six kobo) was spent on Security Votes in 2015.

Further examination of the Agency‟s Budget for that year, revealed that there was no appropriation for Security Vote by the National Assembly. The Chairman/Chief Executive should produce the authority for this expenditure or recover the sum of N169,336,264.36 and forward relevant details for verification.

“Contract for the supply of 7 (seven) operational vehicles for a sum of N90,772,500.00 (Ninety million, seven hundred and seventy-two thousand, five hundred naira) was awarded without approval from the Ministerial Tender‟s Board. This contravened Section 16(2) of the Procurement Act of 2007 which states that “No fund shall be disbursed from Treasury or Federation Account or bank account of the procuring entity for any procurement falling above the set thresholds unless the cheques or other form of a request for payments is accompanied by „No objection Certificate‟ to an award of contract duly signed by the Bureau.

“The sum of N43,228,750.00 (Forty-three million, two hundred and twenty-eight thousand, seven hundred and fifty naira) was spent on renovation and purchase of 5 (five) operational vehicles in Nasarawa State Command in 2015.

A scrutiny of the Appropriation Act revealed that the amounts spent were not appropriated by the National Assembly. The Chairman/Chief Executive, having failed to produce the authority for this expenditure, should recover the sum of N43,228,750.00 and furnish relevant particulars for verification.

“A sum of N42,603,261.94 (Forty-two million, six hundred and three thousand, two hundred and sixty-one naira, ninety-four kobo) granted as cash advances three years ago, to 9 (nine) officers of the Agency, were not retired, contrary to Financial Regulations.

“The Agency overspent Capital expenditures in 2015 by N12,986,372.00 (Twelve million, nine hundred and eighty-six thousand, three hundred and seventy-two naira) on the renovation of Jigawa State Command.”

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NDLEA fails to defend unapproved spending of N356 million

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NDLEA fails to defend unapproved spending of N356 million

Tijani Adeyemi