Senate panel probes communications ministry on N13.9bn collected for service wide votes

A committee of the senate has given the ministry of communications and digital economy a 48-hour ultimatum to account for the N13.9 billion it collected from service-wide votes from 2017 to 2021.

Mathew Urhoghide (PDP Edo South), chairman of the committee on public accounts, gave the ultimatum to William Alo, permanent secretary of the ministry on Tuesday.

A service-wide vote (SWV) which is also known as the consolidated revenue fund charge is more or less the country’s contingency fund in the annual budget.

The ministry had failed to tender documentary evidence on how it spent N13.9 billion during the period under review.

Alo, alongside the director of finance and administration from the ministry, pleaded with the panel for more time to present the documentary evidence.

But Urhoghide said such a plea would not be granted after four months of inquiry on how the said fund was expended by the ministry.

He said based on records made available to the committee from the office of the accountant-general of the federation, a total of N13.9 billion was disbursed to the ministry from the service-wide votes for special capital projects execution from 2017 to 2021.

“Series of letters have been written to your ministry since September last year for required explanations on how the service-wide votes were expended without prompt response, only for you to come here today along with the DFA of the ministry to beg for more time which would not be granted beyond Thursday this week,” he said.

“This is because the committee must submit a report to the senate on how your ministry and many of the other MDAs are running away from explanations on spending made from the service-wide votes.

“What the committee and by extension, the senate wants from your ministry are evidence of approval of the funds given, evidence of contracts awarded and executed from the funds.

“Accountability is key as far as public account or fund is concerned, the very purpose for which this committee was constitutionally created.

“Our findings on how the various MDAs spent the service-wide votes given to them showed that accountability and transparency did not adhere to, which, to us, is unacceptable.

“The consequence of this is that your ministry and other MDAs found wanting would be made to cough out whatever amount mismanaged by way of returning them to the government coffers.”

Responding to Urhoghide, Alo, said N7 billion out of the N13.9 billion was expended on galaxy backbone by an agency under it.

But, the committee insisted that the ministry reappears by Thursday this week.