Covid-19 funds: Reps threaten Accountant General

Covid-19 funds: Reps threaten Accountant General

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The House of Representatives joint committee on Public Accounts, Health Services and Anti Corruption on Monday threatened to issue a Bench Warrant against the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris if he fails to show up before its investigative panel on June15, 2020.

The lawmakers in session passed this resolution in reaction to his deliberate refusal to appear before the joint committee, to explain the status of funds mobilized by the federal government for the purpose of fighting the covid-19 pandemic.

Rep. Oluwole Oke, the lead chairman gave the ruling following realization that the primary focus of the hearing which is on procurement and expenditure from mobolized resources could only be actualized using details provided by the Accountatnt General’s office.

Lawmakers, upon engaging with the team, found that none of the agencies embedded in the PTF has control over the federal government covid-19 intervention funds domiciled in the CBN.

But the Accountant General who is said to have all the details was conspicuously absent from the hearing despite invitation to that effect.

This was as the Presidential Task Force on covid-19 has disclosed that the sum of N22,123,130,411.00 has so far been released to it from the Central Bank of Nigeria to help its operations in curbing the spread of the pandemic.