The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts instructed the Federal Fire Service on Wednesday to return a sum of N1.48 billion in funds related to COVID-19 relief efforts to the federation account within one week. The committee has noted that the fire service has been unable to provide an adequate accounting of the funds it received.
The Bamidele Salam-led committee issued a directive on Wednesday after the Federal Fire Service’s third consecutive failure to attend the investigative hearing. Committee Deputy Chairman, Jeremiah Umar, moved a motion for the return of funds due to the service’s lack of accountability. Umar pointed out that many other agencies had appeared at the hearings, and the investigation was still ongoing.
Due to the Federal Fire Service’s repeated refusal to appear before the lawmakers and provide an explanation for its COVID-19 expenditures, Umar recommended that the N1.48 billion it received in 2020 be returned. The committee issued fresh invitations to several ministries, departments, and agencies that had defaulted on their COVID-19 intervention funds.
Those invited were the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, which acquired N50.5bn; the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, N33bn; the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, through the National Centre for Women Development (N625m); the National Centre for Disease Control, N25bn; and the Federal Ministry of Health, N10bn.
The new invitations were issued shortly after the committee received a report from the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation detailing the billions of naira spent by these organizations. In his remarks, Salam expressed disappointment that the Federal Fire Service had ignored the committee’s summons three times, while the other affected MDAs had done so twice each. He stated that the latter group had one week to appear or face sanctions. He also noted that this lack of cooperation from the invited organizations was unacceptable and would not be tolerated.