The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, have been urged to investigate the missing #10 billion funds budgeted to the National Assembling.
In a statement issued on Sunday, December 12, 2021, SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, asked the leadership of the National Assembly to “promptly probe and refer to appropriate anti-corruption agencies fresh allegations that N10bn of public money budgeted for the National Assembly is missing, misappropriated or diverted.”
According to the group, little can be achieved by the National Assembly in the fight against corruption if the leadership and members do not first confront the specter of alleged corruption and mismanagement within their ranks.
This is even as the organisation asked Lawan and Gbajabiamila to identify the lawmakers and staff members suspected to be involved and hand them over to appropriate anti-corruption agencies to face prosecution, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, and to ensure full recovery of any missing public funds.
SERAP added, “As part of its legislative and oversight functions, the National Assembly has a key role to play in the fight against corruption in the country. But the National Assembly can only effectively perform its anti-corruption role if it can demonstrate exemplary leadership to probe the allegations of corruption and mismanagement involving the legislative body…”
It further stated that, “According to the Auditor-General Report for 2019, the House of Representatives paid N2,550,000,000.00 to members as running costs between July and December 2019, but failed to account for the money, contrary to paragraph 1011(i) of the Financial Regulations.”
“There was no evidence to show what the funds were used for, and no documents to back up the spending,” it noted.
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