The House of Representatives on Monday accused the management of the Bureau for Public Enterprises of wasting about N10 billion on registration of two companies for the Nigeria Postal Service, only for the companies to fold up one year after take-off.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Bamidele Salam, made this known in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said this during the investigative hearing into the audit queries issued against the Bureau by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
In his address, Hon. Salam observed that there was no way a reasonable Nigerian would believe that N10.4 billion was spent to register the two companies only for them to fold up barely one year after.
According to the audit query, the two companies, namely: NIPOST Transport and Logistics Limited and NIPOST Property, reportedly took off in May 2023 and folded up through a presidential directive in May 2024.
In his response, BPE’s Head of Finance and Accounts, who stood in for the Director General of the Agency, Imam Rilwan, explained that while about N10 billion was given to the two companies as take off fund, about N400 million was given to the BPE to prepare the ground for the take off of the companies.
Rilwan said the issue of registering the two companies for NIPOST was approved in 2017, paving the way for the BPE to expend about N423 million in registering and carrying out other activities for the eventual take off of the companies.
He said when the money was eventually released in 2023, the Bureau had to recover its fund, adding that the N423 million given to it was used to rent office accommodation and carry out other essential services.
He said while the Bureau paid rent for the two companies from 2022, the companies took possession of the offices in May 2023, while they folded up in May 2024.
He said all property belonging to the two companies have been officially handed over to NIPOST management
Unsatisfied with his presentation, Salam said spending money from government coffers before the money is released is a clear violation of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, adding that such an action was not a laughable one.
Aside from trying to justify the expenditure, the representatives of the Bureau could not explain why they would spend money meant for other activities for the two companies, demanding relevant approvals from the Bureau.
While expressing displeasure about the development, Salam directed the Director General of BPE, Ayodeji Gbeleyi, to personally appear before the committee on September 11 at 12pm with all relevant documents relating to the transaction.
In the same vein, the Committee also directed the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and the Investment and Security Tribunal to refund into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation about N3.457 billion and N6.327 million respectively within 30 days and tender evidence of payment before the Committee.
While ruling on the presentation by JAMB, Salam said their refusal to reply to letters from the Fiscal Responsibility Commission informing them of their liabilities was an admittance of their indebtedness to the government.
The Head of Monitoring and Evaluation of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Bello Aliyu Gulmare, affirmed that the Board was defaulting in its remittance, remitting only 25 percent of its Internally Generated Revenue instead of 50 percent
Gulmare said the Commission wrote to the Board in April informing them of their indebtedness and another letter in August, adding that the Board did not respond to any of the letters.
But the Director of Finance and Account of JAMB, who represented the Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said the Board was not receiving any capital and overhead funding from the government and was therefore required to remit 25 percent of their IGR.
He said there was a government circular that exempted them from remitting 50 percent of their IGR to government’s coffers, a claim that was disputed by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
He said the Board has a letter from the Ministry of Finance granting them waiver from paying the 50 percent waiver.
While insisting that the FRC was trying to impose on them revenue they are not supposed to pay, he said they refused to respond to the letters from the commission because they have been doing the back and forth since 2017.
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Ruling on the submission, the committee chairman and members frowned at the refusal of JAMB to respond to the letters, insisting that the government was administered based on correspondence.
He said the board should pay into the government coffers the amount standing against them within 30 days.
While addressing the audit query issued against the Investment and Security Tribunal, Hon. Salam directed the Tribunal to immediately recover and pay into government account taxes not deducted from five contractors and the accompanying fine among other liabilities standing against them.
