FG MISUSED N994BN SPECIAL FUNDS IN 5 YRS- NEITI

The federal government misused N994.17 billion out of the amount allocated to the various funds dedicated for special purposes from 2007 to 2011, an audit by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has said.

The amounts discovered in the audit are either unremitted or applied for another purpose, the report said. Presenting the report yesterday in Abuja, the Chairman, NEITI Board, Mr Ledum Mitee, said the audit for the Fiscal Allocations and Statutory Disbursement Audit is first of its kind in the history of NEITI. He said the audit which tracked the disbursements and applications of extractive revenues from the Federation Account to the three tiers of government and other government agencies that directly receive allocations from the federation is unique and important for the reform currently taking place in the country. The result of the audit revealed that Natural Resources Development Fund( NRDF) which was set up to develop alternative sources of revenue from natural resources, however become a loose fund available for government to borrow to meet other obligations. The amount transfers to the NRDF within the period stood at N365 billion but at the end of the period there is outstanding debt of N339.05billion due from the federal government based on withdrawal so far made. On the Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC) the report said out of N680.53 billion due to the commission from the federal government within the period only N216.9 billion was paid leaving a deficit of N463.62 billion. The Ecological Fund received N164 billion from derivation and N53 billion from Excess Crude Account. It noted however that disbursement from the fund were made to beneficiaries outside the purpose for which the fund was set up. The report said that Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has received about N31 billion out of the signature bonus supposed to be remitted to it by the federal government. The stabilisation fund which was set up to serve as a stabilizing factor on the federation revenues from any economic down turn arising from depletion in oil revenues, over the years become a pool to grant loan to fund various expenditure such as car loans to MDAs to the tune of N13 billion. “N34 billion was also taken from this fund to grant loans to six oil producing states. Out of this amount the loan beneficiaries are yet to repay N28billion as at December 2011. Also from this fund, the sum of N87.72 billion was disbursed to INEC for registration of voters and other similar assignments. “The report further revealed that Federal Government granted a loan of $45 million (N6 billion) to Ghana, Sao-Tome and Principe in 2004 from the same stabilisation fund. These benefitting countries are yet to pay up the sum of N827.5 million still outstanding on this loan as at the end of December 2011. The audit revealed that total remitted amount from the extractive industry in the five years to the federation account was N30.09 trillion. On another audit on solid mineral that covered 2011, the result said the sum of N26.9 billion was realised by the federal government from the sector within the year. Out of the amout N26.8 billion represents fund paid by companies. Speaking at the event, Chairman House of Representative Committee of Finance, Abudulmuminu Jibril Doguwa assured the stakeholders that the report will surely be debated at the floor of the House. Auditor General of the federation, Samuel Ukura said at the event that for about 12 years now, audits of the federal government accounts are with the National Assembly but not attended to by the legislatures yet. He said most of the issues discovered by the NEITI audit were already in their audit before the national assembly. Daily Trust