Senate investigates alleged misappropriation of N3.3trillion by MDAs

– Senate has begun investigation into alleged misappropriation of 3.3 trillion naira by MDAs

– Senator Aliyu Sabi, the Chairman, Senate committee on media and publicity, reiterated that the eighth senate is ready to make a difference in this season of change

– Sabi said the Senate was able to save the country N7 billion 

Bukola Saraki

Senate on Tuesday, March 15 began investigation into alleged misappropriation of 3.3 trillion naira by Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the 2014.

In an interview with newsmen in Abuja, Senator Abdulahi Sabi , the Chairman, Senate committee on media and publicity, said the report is not indictment on the part of the affected agencies but query which needed to be addressed by the concerned government agencies.

He also explained that the eighth senate is the period of change which is the difference the lawmakers intend to show.

“Since eighth Senate ‎has chosen to be different and we are in season and period of change‎. Along that line, you could see the courage that we have to make some differences from what has obtained in the past and o this note, we have passed reports of some committees like the TSA, which is a classical example. Through that exercise, we were able to save the country 7 billion naira.

“There are similar works that has been done. We want to say that since we have chosen to be different. We urge Nigerians to wait and see what we will make out of the investigation.

READ ALSO: AGF exposes massive fraud in NNPC

“Without holding forth for the past assemblies. I want to say that it is not as if they have not been doing anything about the past audit reports. But perhaps they have not taken their action up to the scale that would have made a huge impact that people want to see. If that is what the Auditor General means, I agree with him,” he said.

Sabi said that the Auditor General is only raising a query and not an indictment, so when this is raised, the essence of the public accounts committee is to invite those parties involved in the query and investigate.

He said there is a process and it will be wrong to accuse anyone of being guilty in which Bukola Saraki, the Senate President has made it clear that we would take oversight functions far more serious than what it used to be in the past.

“If oversight functions are carried out properly, some of these queries that we talk about will begin to reduce because the essence is to see infractions before they happen, we as lawmakers will stop it before another institution discover the anomalies and bring them to our notice.

“These are the powers of the National Assembly through oversight functions. We are committed to ensuring that a thorough job is done this time. We have demonstrated our capacity to match our words with our actions. Wait and see, it’s a promise and we have four years to prove that we mean business,” said Sabi.

READ ALSO: NNPC Fraud: Kachikwu Wields The Big Stick

It was reported that the misappropriation allegation was contained in the report submitted by Samuel Ukura, the Auditor-General for Federation, to Salisu Maikasuwa, the clerk of the National Assembly on Monday, March 14.

The office of the Auditor General of the Federation presented the audit report to the National Assembly on Monday, March 14.

In the report, the AGF revealed how the Nigerian National Petroleum Coporation (NNPC) failed to remit 3.2 trillion naira into federation account in 2014 from sales of crude oil.

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