Reps ask Adeosun to refund N11.2m in 1 month

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has ordered the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, to refund the sum of N11.2 million to the federation account within the next one month.

The committee said N4.980m out of the money was diverted by some officials of the ministry under the guise of a stakeholders’ seminar, while N6.252m was claimed to be withholding tax deducted from payments to contractors in 2010.

The withholding tax was, however, not remitted to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as required by law, the committee said.

The committee, chaired by Rep Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) gave the directive based on four queries issued by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.

The committee said the minister must provide evidence of payment before it in the next 30 days.

The panel also accused the ministry of an attempt to cover up the matter by “concocting” documents and presenting same before the panel, which the lawmakers said did not correspondent with the evidence before them.

The panel also queried the ministry for giving 18 of its staff cash advances to the tune of N46.9m for the purchase of stationery and other office equipment. They asked Adeosun to query the affected staff to serve as deterrence to others.

Responding, the permanent secretary in the ministry, Mahmud Isa Dutse, who represented Adeosun at the hearing, said the ministry had sent enough evidence to the committee on the matter.

He said based on the evidence, the ministry was clean in all the queries and accusations raised against it, pleading for additional time to come up with more documents. The committee gave the ministry up to next Wednesday to do that.