The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Alhaji Ibrahim Dank-wambo, yesterday told the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on the Transportation sector that he approved the mandates leading to the alleged N30.9 billion withdrawals by the Transportation Ministry.

He said the money had already been spent once due certificates from the Due Process Office had been issued, stressing: “All capital expenditure that had Due Process as at the end of December can still access monies that are released to the ministries because the money has already been released to them, up to March 31 of the following year.”

According to him, “No money has been spent because the certificate says that they have done work and require payment. That is why they say Certificate for Payment. But you see from the time you get certificate to the time you will meet requirement for payment cannot be the same.

“You see, as soon as money is moved from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) to the Central Capital Account, the condition is that there must be a certification that as at now the contractor meets the request for payment and he should be paid. The money is already spent. That is, as at 2007, the money is spent.”

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However, the Committee disagreed with the AGF, saying that the provisions of the 2007 Appropriation Act were violated by making withdrawals of monies from the Central Capital Account from which payment was made to contractors up to March 2008.

But pressed further to explain what constitutes unspent funds which, going by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s directive, should be returned to the treasury, Dankwambo said: “It is in respect of monies in terms of recurrent that are held by the ministries and agencies which have not been exhausted as at 31st of December.”

Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, chairman of the committee, said payment to contractors who had completed their jobs was okay, but pointed out that such payment contravened Section 81 of the 1999 Constitution.

The Section, according to him, “provides that appropriation is meant to last from January to December.” 

But Dankwambo advised the Committee to ask the Attorney-General of the Federation (AG) to proffer interpretation of the Section.

He said: “If it is the matter of legality, I am a layman; I think the AG is the one to answer.”

Also yesterday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Charles Soludo, who appeared before the Committee to reconcile the withdrawals made by the Transportation Ministry between December 26 and 31, 2007, submitted a figure of N946.855 billion as the reconciled figure of releases to the transport sector from 1999 to date.

Soludo said that not all payments were made through the CBN, pointing out that some payments were made through commercial banks.

According to him, “We will only give details of payments made through the CBN.  The Accountant General of the Federation is here.  The three institutions (Accountant General’s Office, Ministry of Transportation and the CBN) have met and reconciled and I will tender the record to you.  The total now is N946.855 billion.”

Soludo, however, said that the reconciliation was not concluded yet, pointing out that this was why there were slight differences in the figures.

According to him, “All government monies, by law, are with the CBN.  But in a few cases, especially in states, monies are disbursed through commercial banks; and because of the size of the Transportation Ministry, the agencies might exist but differences might be small.”

He said that capital vote, because of its volume, “is with the CBN while recurrent money is in the Commercial Banks”.
But the Accountant General, when asked by the Committee to corroborate the figure of releases to the transportation sector from 1999 to date, he said that a total of N940.6 billion had been released so far – representing a difference of about N6.2 billion lower than the CBN figure.

He said that the reconciled figure by his office was as at Wednesday, an indication that the process was not yet concluded.
Meanwhile, Minister of Transportation, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, yesterday tendered an unreserved apology to the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Transportation sector, saying that the Ministry’s statement clarifying the alleged withdrawals of N30.9 billion between December 26 and 31, 2007 was not intended to embarrass the Committee or the institution of the Senate.

The committee is probing the expenditure of funds released to the transportation sector from 1999 to date.

Allison-Madueke’s apology came after the committee told her that her media reaction (in the form of paid advertisement and news stories) to the alleged withdrawal of N30.9 billion had caused the lawmakers embarrassment and violated their Legislative Houses’ Powers and Privileges Act.

Lokpobiri had told the minister that she had, by so doing, run foul of Section 24 of the Act, which provides for 12 months’ imprisonment upon conviction.

According to him, “When we read about these publications on the pages of newspapers, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was embarrassed and you know our activities are governed by, one, the constitution, two, our standing Rules and then the legislative Houses’ Powers and privileges Act.

“According to Section 24 of that Act, anybody who goes to make that kind of slanderous, embarrassing publication is liable to 12 months imprisonment.

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“We felt embarrassed as a Senate that has sworn to observe the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; we felt that before anything should be done, we felt that today (yesterday) that you are here, we should be able to draw your attention to those publications and to get your reactions.

“So, first of all, we are expressing our displeasure because this committee is an extension of the Senate. Anytime you see a committee of the Senate, it is set up in accordance with the constitution of Nigeria.  So, it was the Senate that was insulted and we felt that we should draw your attention to it.”

The Minister reacted: “I think it is most unfortunate that the various reports have created discomfort within the Senate and the Ministry of Transportation.

“I have in my hand, a number of press releases. One of them, of course, was the one that was released by the Ministry which was a statement of what happened to the N30.9 billion, in response to media reports actually.

“That particular statement, the Ministry had only intended as a response to the various media reports.  But, it was, at no time, meant to embarrass the Senate in any manner. And if it did, and created discomfort, then the Ministry of Transportation is certainly very sorry for that and apologises for that discomfort.

“Other press releases appear to be editorials which we ourselves are very surprised at. When you say ‘Senate misled the public on N30.9 billion by Minister’ (in reference to the lead story of a newspaper), as far as the publication is concerned, I know that at no time did I have any press conference with them.

“So, that is editorial journalism at its best. However, like I said, it was not meant to embarrass anybody in any form. I just want to say for the record that, at the beginning of your Ad Hoc investigation, when we first met, I stated then and I repeat again, that as far as the Ministry of Transportation is concerned, this Ad Hoc Committee on Transportation is incredibly important to us in terms of its output and recommendations.

“It is based on your output and recommendation that we, to a very large extent, form the basis of the progress that we have made over the next five, 10, 15 years in the Ministry of Transportation and its sub-sector as a whole. So, it is critical as I said then and I say it again for us to work together in seamless alignment.

“It would not have been possible for us to have purposed to embarrass you in any form. I want to assure the committee that that was never the intention.”

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