The Federal Fire Service has been directed by the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee to return N1.48 billion to the Federation Account within a week.
The Agency has failed to Account for the debated funds which was given to the agency as intervention funding for the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the service failed to show up for the investigative hearing for a third time, the Bamidele Salam-led committee issued the directive.
Deputy Chairman of the committee, Jeremiah Umar, moved a motion for the refund of the amount noting that:
“So many other agencies have appeared before this committee, and the investigation is ongoing. I don’t see any reason why (sic) the fire service will ignore a committee like this.”
The committee also issued fresh invitations to some other defaulting Ministries Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government who had failed to appear befote it to explain various queries standing against them from the office of the Auditor General of the Federation on the billions of naira allocated as COVID-19 intervention funds.
Those invited are the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security -N50. 5 bn, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation- N33 bn, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, through the National Centre for Women Development-N625 million, National Centre for Disease Control-N25 bn, and the Federal Ministry of Health- N10bn.
In his remark, Salam lamented that the Federal Fire Service had snubbed the Committee’s summons thrice while the other affected MDAs did the same twice each, saying that the latter group had been given one week to appear, or face sanctions.
(C) ControlTV 2024.
