Reps demand details of $125m W/ Bank loan disbursement

The House of Representatives yesterday demanded that the Budget Office and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation provide details of utilisation of the $125 million loan received from the World Bank.

Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Oluwole Oke, ordered that ministries, departments and agencies that received funds from the loan to appear before the committee next week.

The committee had previously summoned the Director-General,

Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, to explain the $125 million collected from the World Bank which was allegedly not captured in the 2018 Appropriation Act.

Akabueze had also been asked to explain the disbursement of another $36.1 million World Bank loan collected in four years.

During his appearance before the committee Thursday, he said the $200,000 was disbursed to the Office of the Auditor-General of Federation.

He said the document submitted to the committee contained the list of beneficiaries of the loan which the OAUGF was among.

He said the $125 million loan was the total received from the World Bank.

The DG further explained that the $36.1 million was the loan component; while $1.2 million was the grant.

He said the loan could be spent on many things, including capital projects.

He also insisted that the World Bank loans and grants were all captured in the 2018 appropriations Act.

He said the Accountant-General of the Federation was also aware of the loan.

In his submission earlier, Director of Funds, AccountantGeneral Office, Sabo

Mohammed, said the office did not receive any document apart from the committee’s letter requesting the details of the $36.1m World Bank loan given to the Auditor-General Office.

“We’ll like the Director-General, Budget Office, to clarify too if the loan has been utilised. As far as we’re concerned, this money has not been accessed”, he said.

The committee resolved that the Accountant-General appear before it on Monday to provide all relevant documents and explain issues surrounding the utilisation of the loan.