COVID-19 PROBE: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE BEGINS INVESTIGATION OF 60 MDAs 27-11-23
By Sadiq Aminu The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives has began a full scale probe into the alleged mismanagement of COVID-19 intervention funds from 2020 to 2023.
The Chairman of the Committee Me Bamidele Salam, stated that the committee is probing over 60 MDAs of several billions of Naira intervention funds allocated to them during the COVID-19.
Mr Salam said the committee has also given enough time for the MDAs to prepare for exercise, warning that they would not entertain any extension of time from any of the agencies.
He urged the Accountant General of the Federatiom whose office was very important to the assignment to make available relevant and competent personnel to the Committee to facilitate the assignment
Some of the MDAs that appeared before the Committee included Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospitals Bauchi, Federal Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Federal Ministry of Water Resources and the Federal Road Maintenance Agency FERMA.
The Committee directed the Chief Medical Director of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital Bauchi, Prof Yusuf Jubrin to reappear before it on Thursday with relevant documents to back up the funds released to the institution during the period under review.
The Committee directed the officials of Federal Ministry of Communication Innovation and Digital Economy go back and reappear with relevant documents, such as vouchers documentary evidence on the expenditure of the N3 billion allocated for the Ministry during the period
Similarly, the Committee frowned on the awards o several contracts on the same day and the claim of exclusive rights of certain contractors by the ministry to provide certain Services without following principles of Federal character and due process