Nigeria:Return Un-remitted N477 Million, Reps Instruct Agency

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has asked the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Import Promotion Council (NIPC), Yewande Sadiku, to return to the coffers of the federal government, an unremitted N477 million.

The funds are part of Internally Generated Revenue by the agency between 2013 and 2014, meant to be sent to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The committee also called on the EFCC to immediately persecute the officers involved. 

This development was based on an Auditor-General to the Federation' (AuGF) query in 2013. 

The lawmakers during an interactive session with officials of the commission on Friday had observed that the infractions raised by the AuGF cannot be ignored.

Responding to the committee, Mrs Sadiku admitted that though she was not in charge when the infractions were committed, she would not dispute the position of the AuGF.

She also pointed out that at a particular period, the commission was overdebited with about N290 million and the AuGF office had promised to make a refund. 

"This must have probably accounted for why there is a shortfall of N477 million and when a refund is made amendments could be effected."

The deputy chairman of the committee, Ibrahim Baba (Bauchi-APC), countered her saying: "the commission is not a private company and the money in question belongs to the federal government because what you remitted is actually 25 per cent of your annual earnings."

Also responding, chairman of the committee, Kingsley Chinda, asked who the officers in charge of the commission were "when the infractions were committed".

He also insisted to know why the money was not remitted as at when due to the federation's purse.

Mr Chinda said the committee had no other option than to uphold the AuGF's audit report. 

"We are also referring this matter to the anti-graft commission to further dig deep into this matter and report to the clerk of this committee within 60 days," he added.