Chuks Okocha and Deji Elumoye in Abuja
Senate Committee on Public Account yesterday expressed its displeasure at the failure of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Idris Ahmed, to present 2015 Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) details for scrutiny.
Ahmed, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Public Account, was asked by the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Matthew Urohidge, to present the statement of account and mandate of IPPS to the committee. But the representative of AGF pleaded for more time to submit the document.
Urohidge, who was worried by the submission of the AGF, berated the office of the AGF for its inability to provide the records on IPPIS.
He asked: “So, there is no document for IPPS even though you were queried three years ago on the same document and up till now you are yet to present the document.”
But the representatives of the AGF appealed to the senators to give them more time to get the document from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The committee, however, insisted that the document must be made available within two weeks.
The lawmakers were also not satisfied with the response of the AGF to the query on why the N596 billion ecological funds were not invested to yield more money for Nigeria. The AGF had told the panel that it was against the CBN policy to do so.
Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary, Ecological Fund in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mrs. Habiba Lawal, explained that the fund in question does not belong to the Federal Government alone.
The senate committee had no other option than to adjourn the meeting and allowed the AGF a leave of two weeks to tidy his documents and appear before the panel.
