Reps panel asks police commission to refund N12m

The House of Representatives Committee Public Accounts Committee (PAC has asked the Permanent Secretary of the Police Service Commission, Mr Istifanus Musa, to refund the sum of N12 million to the federation account.

The committee said the amount was reportedly spent on workshop in 2014 without budgetary provisions, which the office of the Auditor General of the Federation queried.

Citing relevant constitutional provisions, the panel chaired by Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) said all funds taken from the federation account shall be spent based on approval of the National Assembly.

The Auditor General’s queries detailed how the amount was said to have been expended on a workshop held in Nasarawa State in 2014 but that payment was made in 2015, even though there was no such provision in that year’s budget.

However, the permanent secretary said the payment was made in 2015 due to late releases of funds for the 2014 budget and that all the necessary documents were presented to the auditors during audit visit.

Chinda said “it’s glaring that the action violates Sections 80 to 81 of the constitution, which capture extra-budgetary expenditure.

“We hereby uphold the report of the Auditor General that the sum of N12m should be refunded. We caution that MDAs should not unilaterally carry over expenditure.”