Reps urge Fed Govt to recover agency’s misappropriated N738m, $3m

The House of Representatives has urged the National Assembly to stop further abuse of the Development of Natural Resources Fund (DNRF).

It condemned the abuse the fund had been subjected to over the years.

The House also sought the recovery of N738,772,008,857.24 and $3 million disbursed from the fund between 2002 and 2019.

The move followed yesterday’s adoption of a report of the ad hoc committee on the utilisation of N350 billion NRF as a financial window for the development of the Solid Minerals sector at the Committee of the Whole, chaired by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

Kamale, who gave a synopsis of the report, said there was a need to ascertain Federal Government’s investments and proceeds from solid mineral and steel development.

Among the committee’s recommendations, the House urged the National Assembly to draw detailed guidelines for the disbursement of all money accrued to the Development of Natural Resources Account domiciled and controlled by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF).

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It advised that the core ministries – the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources – should reflect annually in the Appropriation Bill the amount intended to draw from the DNRF to avoid duplication on items or projects already captured in the Appropriation Act.

The House said the National Assembly should set out a framework for the administration of the fund, preferably an inter-ministerial committee, drawn from the three core ministries – the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources – to be constituted under the supervision of the office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) as ecological practice.

That the National Assembly should ensure that all withdrawals from the Development of Natural Resources Fund are done in accordance with the aims of the Executive Order establishing the fund.”