The Senate Public Accounts Committee has slammed the Office of the Solicitor-General of the Federation for allegedly disbursing N4.16bn judgment debts without due process.
The Auditor-General for the Federation, in a report, had queried the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary of Justice Ministry for disbursing the fund without a committee saddled with the responsibility of managing the fund.
An ad-hoc committee was set up on the order of National Assembly to administer the disbursement of the fund following the public outcry of non-payment of judgment debts by the Federal Government.
The report said in the 2016 budget, N460m was voted for judgment debts and another N10bn in 2017, and that the record from Ministry of Justice showed that N5.3bn was released within those two years by the Federal Government and N4.16bn disbursed to over 50 beneficiaries with no detailed explanation on how the balance of N1.17bn was spent.
In her response to the query, the representative of the Solicitor General, who is also the Director of Finance in the ministry, Modupe Bakare, said: “The ministry quite appreciates your concern over disbursement of public funds in order to ensure transparency and accountability.
However, it might interest you to note that there is no any standard process laid down by the financial authority which the ministry contravenes in disbursing the funds in question.
“It is noteworthy to mention that the ministry has not deviated from the mandate of the committee in making the payment. There is no pending litigation against the judgment debts before making the final payment.”
The committee’s chairman, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, said there was no verification as to the authenticity of the disbursement of the N4.1bn and the balance of N1.17bn.
“There’s need to verify it,” he said, adding that the Permanent Secretary of the ministry must be sanctioned for that payment.
