Senate Orders NDLEA to Refund N356m Unapproved Spending

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Chairman, Senate Public Accounts Committee, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, has ordered the management of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to refund to the nation’s treasury, the sum of N356 million it spent without necessary approvals.

The panel said the NDLEA officials failed to justify the N365 million being their total expenditure when they appeared before the Senate panel.

The committee had invited the NDLEA management over an alleged unapproved spending and failure to account for advances granted to some of its officials.

The Senate panel is currently scrutinising the 2016 Auditor General’s report which contained the alleged financial infractions against the NDLEA.

The Chairman of the Senate committee, at its hearing on Wednesday, sustained the Auditor General’s queries which alleged that the anti-drug agency spent N43 million on the revocation and purchase of operational vehicles without approval.

The NDLEA was also accused of failure to refund N42 million cash advances.

It was also found guilty of spending N12 million on the renovation of the Jigawa State office without approval.

The Auditor General’s report also indicted the NDLEA of purchasing operational vehicles worth N90 million without approval from the Ministerial Tender Board.

The panel gave the NDLEA 24 hours to justify spending N169 milion as security votes.

The 24-hour ultimatum expires on Thursday without the agency being able to defend the allegations.

The panel described as unacceptable, the explanations offered by the representative of the Director General of NDLEA, Abdullahi Shittu, regarding the issues bordering on the alleged financial infractions against the agency.

Urhoghide therefore ordered the NDLEA to refund the money spent without appropriations.

The senator said: “We will sustain the query of the Auditor General’s report against your agencies and the money spent illegally should be refunded.”

The Auditor General’s query read in part: “A sum of N169,336,264.36 was spent on security votes in 2015.

“Further examination of the agency‟s budget for that year revealed that there was no appropriation for security vote by the National Assembly.

“The Chairman/Chief Executive (of the NDLEA) should produce the authority for this expenditure or recover the sum of N169,336,264.36 and forward relevant details for verification.

“Contract for the supply of seven operational vehicles for a sum of N90,772,500.00 was awarded without approval from the Ministerial Tender’s Board.

“This contravened Section 16(2) of the Procurement Act of 2007.

“The Act states that, ‘No fund shall be disbursed from Treasury or Federation Account or bank account of the procuring entity for any procurement falling above the set thresholds unless the cheques, or other form of request for payments is accompanied by No objection Certificate to an award of contract duly signed by the Bureau’.

“The sum of N43,228,750.00 was spent on renovation and purchase of five operational vehicles in Nasarawa State Command in 2015.

“A scrutiny of the Appropriation Act revealed that the amounts spent were not appropriated for by the National Assembly.

“The Chairman/Chief Executive (of the NDLEA) having failed to produce the authority for this expenditure, should recover the sum of N43,228,750.00 and furnish relevant particulars for verification.

“A sum of N42,603,261.94 granted as cash advances three years ago, to nine officers of the agency, were not retired, contrary to financial regulations.

“The agency overspent capital expenditures in 2015 by N12,986,372.00 on the renovation of Jigawa State Command.”