The House of Representatives Committee on Public Account has said there was an alleged mismanagement and breach of financial regulations in the disbursement and utilisation of N1.32 trillion COVID-19 fund.
Submitting the report to the House, the committee also alleged that some government agencies and private organisations that benefited from the funds used the money for purposes it was not meant for.
The report, which was submitted to the parliament during Tuesday’s plenary by Committee Chairman Bamidele Salam (PDP, Osun), said some private airlines used the COVID-19 for their personal operations.
Salam said the report, which is the first volume, covered the period between 2020 and 2022.
The committee chairman said 92 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were invited to appear during its sittings, following a motion adopted by the House on October 17, last year, alleging mismanagement of COVID-19 intervention funds.
The committee’s report, which will be subject to lengthy perusal, alleged mismanagement, non-compliance, and outright violation of procurement laws and financial regulations by various MDAs and private sector beneficiaries of the fund.
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Quoting records from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, the report gave a breakdown of inflows amounting N1.32 trillion for the fund.
Out of the total inflow, about $3.4 billion (N1.28 trillion) was said to have been donated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as grant while the Federal Government intervention stood at N34.4 billion.
Besides, it said a general donation amounted to N6.09 billion, while the China General Chamber of Commerce donated N48.12 million, with N70 million and N50 million coming from the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and Remita E-payment platform.
The document revealed that officials from the Ministry of Water Resources, the Federal Ministry of Finance, University Teaching Hospitals, Federal Medical Centres, specialised health institutions, the Rural Electrification Agency, among others, appeared before the committee during its investigation.
The report reads: “There were many cases of non-appearance, delayed appearance, non-submission of required documents and late submission of documents by some MDAs which got funds from the Federal Government’s COVID-19 intervention fund.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not provide the required information on time, despite several letters written by the committee.
“There were several cases of deliberate refusal by some beneficiary entities to provide the certificates of no-objection issued to them by Bureau of Public Procurement on procurements during the pandemic for verification by the committee.
“There were several instances of unjustifiable delay in procurements by Chief Executive Officers contrary to provisions of the Procurement Act for which funds were released between 2020 and 2021, but yet to be completed till date.
“The committee observed that most of the private sector beneficiaries of the COVID-19 Intervention Funding used the funds for purposes other than those which they were approved by the disbursing MDAs.”