Reps to probe utilisation of N96.182bn intervention funds disbursed since 2015

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, unveiled plans to investigate series of special and intervention funds disbursed by President Muhammadu Buhari through various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) over the past six years.

To this end, the House resolved to set up an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the disbursement of funds received by the MDAs from 2015 to 2020 with a view to ensuring that such funds were properly utilised.

Breakdown of the funds include: Special Intervention for MDGs worth N7,689,002,462 disbursed in 2015; Contingency – N22,469,358,143; MDG Special Projects – N7,229,622,307; as well as Special Intervention disbursed in 2020 – N39,933,338,086; Special Intervention/Constituency Projects -N3,002,315,957 and Capital Contingency – N15,868,060,896.

In his lead debate, Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Niger Delta, Hon Henry Nwawuba, expressed concern over the constraints faced by Federal Government to revert to external and internal borrowings to augment domestic savings, balance of payment deficits, and shortfalls in revenue.

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He observed that “Federal Government has also been borrowing quite substantially to fund projects and a range of public interventions. The House is aware that some of the funds established by the Federal Government between 2015 — 2020 and the amounts released include the following: – N7,689,002,462 – Special Intervention MDGs (2015); Contingency – N22,469,358,143; MDG Special Projects – N7,229,622,307; Special Intervention (2020) – N39,933,338,086; Special Intervention/Constituency Projects -N3,002,315,957; N15,868,060,896 – Capital Contingency, respectively.

“The House is further aware that other interventions include national water rehabilitation project, national agriculture technology program, and salary bailout to states, payment for fertilizer, state water supply project, state agriculture project, and FADAMA project.

“The House is concerned that despite the huge amount of funds invested, citizens continue to undergo untold hardship. The house is also concerned that despite the huge loans to boost the economy Nigeria still slipped into its second recession in less than five years.

“The House is further concerned that those agencies in charge of disbursing some of the special funds are unable to give proper accounts of how the monies were utilised. The House is worried that most of the funds were not captured in the appropriation processes, thus the National Assembly was not made aware of such monetary allocations.

“The House is also worried that alleged fraudulent practices by agencies of government are sabotaging the efforts of the Federal Government and, if left unchecked may lead to a total collapse of the country’s economy,” he noted.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Reps to probe utilisation of N96.182bn intervention funds disbursed since 2015

Reps to probe utilisation of N96.182bn intervention funds disbursed since 2015