Senate probes alleged missing N44 billion military pension
The Senate has begun investigation of the alleged missing N44,986,516,357.43 from the Military Pensions Board.
The funds, according to the upper legislative chamber, were allocated to the board from the Service Wide Votes between 2013 and 2017.
This is coming as the Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun yesterday disclosed how the implementation of the treasury single account (TSA) led to the recovery of the sum of N1.6 billion from an unidentified account in a commercial bank.
Speaking when authorities of the board appeared before the Senate Public Accounts Committee yesterday, chairman of the panel, Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo State) charged the board to submit the required documents to the committee on or before Tuesday, May 8, 2018.
He wondered why the board could not defend the releases despite receiving a correspondence from the panel since November 2017.
According to the lawmaker, rather than furnish the panel with relevant documents, the board supplied documents not relevant to the subject matter.
A representative of the office of the Accountant General of Federation gave the breakdown of the N44.9 billion Service Wide Vote released to the board to include: N13.5 billion for 2015, N16.6 billion for 2016 and N15. 422 billion for 2017.
He, however, said no funds were released to the board between 2013 and 2014.
A member of the committee, Phillip Gyunka (PDP, Nasarawa State) accused the board of negligence. “This report you submitted is so haphazard. Somebody somewhere is not doing his job,” he said.
Chairman of the board, Adekunle Adesope, denied receiving any communication from the committee.
Testifying before the Abubakar Nuhu Damburam led Committee probing into the level of implementation of the TSA policy of the Federal Government, Adeosun explained that the feat was achieved by a consulting firm engaged by the Finance Ministry.
The minister spoke after both Damburam and a member of the committee, Mr. Ashiru Aminu Mani wondered why her minister spent the sum of N540 million on consultants handling the TSA instead of relying on the office of Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) in line with provision of the law.
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