Reps uncover N300m out of N1.2trn unclaimed funds hidden by commercial banks

THE House of Representatives on Wednesday said it had uncovered over N300 billion unclaimed funds trapped in some commercial banks. 

Chairman, ad-hoc committee mandated to investigate and recover unclaimed funds trapped in various commercial banks in the country, Honourable Uyime Idem, disclosed this during the investigative hearing in Abuja. 

He explained that the N300 billion was a fraction of the N1.2 trillion unclaimed funds yet to be discovered by the ad-hoc committee. 

According to him, the funds were hanging funds and failed transactions carried out by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). 

While reiterating the adhoc committee’s resolve towards recovering the money from government agencies and the banks, Idem disclosed that about N300 billion was discovered on March 29 from banks and government agencies. 

He said the committee was still scrutinising documents and reports sent to it by banks and government agencies, adding that this would help the committee to recover more funds. 

He, however, warned that commercial banks that are yet to respond to the request by the ad-hoc committee either to appear or submit documents risk being sanctioned if by today, they don’t show up. 

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“The commercial banks are regulated by government and they cannot refuse us. This assignment is crucial. We will not allow any government agency or commercial bank to undermine our power. If the commercial banks fail to appear, the next line of action will be to summon them,” he said. 

The lawmaker said a situation where the country would go out to borrow money to fund budget deficits but have over N1 trillion hanging somewhere was unacceptable. 

He added that if the monies in the banks were recovered, it would go a long way to help the country from borrowing. 

The committee, however, rejected documents presented to it by Citibank, accusing the bank of falsifying documents which contradict the ones it earlier presented. 

The lawmakers also accused the bank of owing the Federal Government about N99 billion from accumulated failed transactions and hanging funds. 

However, members of the committee were not happy with the discrepancies in the documents submitted by Citi Bank which showed different figures and number of customers from the recent documents submitted by the bank. 

In his remarks, Honourable Mohammed Bio, who described the action of Citi Bank as criminal, said, “They had earlier submitted an account record of customers without Bank Verification Number (BVN) with a number of 11 people with huge sums of money. 

“But today, they made another submission on the content but the figures and number of customers stood at seven with just little money to their names, which make it curious. “What are they trying to hide? Or could this be an afterthought that they had to bring these new documents?” 

But the Executive Director, Operation and Technology of Citi Bank, Mrs Ngozi Omokeme, said the bank had nothing to hide and that the documents submitted were not falsified. 

She said, “With all due respect, we are not here to change any document. Also, I am not here to falsify any documents. “I did not bring any document that is outside what we have earlier submitted. The documents are consistently the same.