The Senate has uncovered how Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government abused Service Wide Votes of about N3.8 trillion between 2017 and 2021 as investigated by its standing committee.
The Senate asked the Executive to use the supplementary budget approach to meet emergencies instead of the SWV.
According to the report: “The Executive should be advised to use Supplementary Budget approach to meet emergencies or shortfall rather than the current Service Wide Vote mechanism which amounts to affront/erosion of the approval powers of the National Assembly.”
The Chairman, Senate Public Accounts Committee, Senator Matthew Uhroghide, had conducted investigation into the disbursement of the Service Wide Votes.
The Committee invited 207 government agencies for the investigation, but only 119 agencies appeared before the committee, while 85 agencies shunned the invitation of the Committee.
Among the agencies that shunned the Committee’s investigation were the State House; Independent National Electoral Commission; Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Petroleum Resources; Nigeria Defence Academy; Federal Ministry of Health; and Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria.
In the report submitted by the Committee, which was upheld by the Senate, some agencies did not make formal request for the money that was sent to them by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
It was also discovered that hundred of billions were claimed to have been used for the purpose of paying salaries shortfalls whereas such agencies had already collected appropriate funds for personnel emoluments and were on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System platform.
The Senate further discovered that MDAs have not been disclosing Service Wide Votes transaction documents such as payment vouchers and vote book.
The Senate therefore urged the Executive to limit the release of Service Wide Vote to recurrent emergencies or shortfall genuinely desired with satisfactory proof.
The also recommended in-depth investigation into depth the operations of the IPPIS to stem the rising cases of irregularities in the system.
