The Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) launched an investigation on Wednesday into 252 government agencies that benefited from N5 trillion in Service Wide Votes (SWV) between 2017 and 2021.
The Senate decided to investigate Service Wide Votes (SWV) after discovering that many agencies collected funds from SWV without notifying the National Assembly Panels that are mandated by law to oversee the agencies.
Senator Mathew Urhoghide, Chairman of the Senate Public Account Committee, told reporters that the investigation is about the disbursement of Service Wide Votes between 2017 and 2021, adding that the Service Wide Votes have become a major component of the nation’s budget due to the amount budgeted annually for it in the budget.
He stated that the Committee must investigate how the money collected from Service Wide Votes is being spent because there is confusion regarding the approval of the Votes.
According to him, we want to see how this money is being spent; there is confusion about approval; and we want to truly understand what is going on.
He added that if an agency fails to appear before the Committee, the Committee will not hesitate to issue an arrest warrant for the agency’s head because it has been discovered that many agencies collected this fund without informing the National Assembly Committee tasked with overseeing the agency.
He stated that he will not tolerate the absence of Galaxy Backbone, the Ministry of Interior, the Budget Office, State House, and NBET from the committee.
He went on to say that the votes raised N180 billion for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), N2.9 billion for NBET, and N445 billion for the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
The Ministry of Information and Culture, Defence, NHIS, Police, Ministry of Power, Bank of Industry, Water Resources, National Assembly, Public Complaint Commission (PCC), Directorate of State Service (DSS), and Presidential Amnesty Programme are among the 252 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies expected to appear in the ongoing Investigation of Service Wide Votes between 2017 and 2021.
