Group Asks Accountant General To Account For N173 billion Disbursed Without Records

By Uche Mbah

The last may not have been heard about the N173 billion disbursed and channeled through parastatals and agencies by the Accountant general of the Federation without proper records as a rights group has written the Office of the Accountant general of the Federation using the Freedom of information Act as a basis.

Last April, the office of the Accountant General was gutted by fire, with controversies raging on whether there were financial losses incurred. Though officials claim that the area quartering financial documents were not touched and that the system is fully backed up, it was alleged that the area affected was where the funds for disbursement of Agencies and Parastatals were was affected. The Minister of Finance was later to deny that N700 billion was lost to the fire.

But the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has written the office of the accountant General requesting information on how the said money was disbursed. HEDA is working in partnership with a data advocacy organisation, Dataphyte. Last May,Dataphyte had published a report titled, “N173 Billion Payments Without Description Defeats Nigeria’s Open Government Initiative” which indicted the Accountant general’s Office.

In a letter signed by its Legal Officer, Rebecca David, HEDA said that one of the cardinal principles of accountability is that payments made by the OAGF into any government account must give details of what the funds are meant for. This is the best global practice adopted by many countries who are committed to the fight against corruption,”