The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts is set to investigate the utilisation of N83.9bn disbursed to the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, states as well as the MDAs to fight the pandemic in 2020.
The funds were said to have been appropriated in the 2020 budget as revealed in a report by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The report said the PTF received N22.163bn; MDAs, N24.635bn; and states, N17bn.
The financial records were sent to the Senate and House of Representatives’ Committees on Public Accounts.
The report showed that N16.9bn was approved in the 2020 budget, N32.5bn from the COVID-19 Special Account/Levy; while N34.5bn was to be funded through donations from public and private sectors.
The audit report on the emergency response programme revealed that out of the N83.9bn appropriated, N63.797bn had been disbursed to implementing agencies and other entities as well as states at the time the audit was conducted.
“In the course of implementing the COVID-19 intervention activities, funds mobilised from various sources as at 30th June 2020 include: N22.2bn was disbursed by the Federal Government to the PTF; N24.6bn was disbursed by the Federal Government to the participating agencies.
“N30.1 billion was raised by CACOVID and is under their direct management; N17bn was paid directly by the Federal Government to some States as support; N110.05bn in cash and in-kind was raised by 12 International Development Partners,” the report stated.
It also showed N21bn was donated by the NNPC Group; while N1.9bn was donated by the public and paid into designated accounts with five commercial banks.
“This interim report covers findings from the audit of transactions amounting to N4.9bn as at 30th June 2020 (N191m at the PTF and N4.7bn at participating agencies).
The report stated that the COVID-19 funds were in most cases either not utilized or had low levels of utilization as of the 30th of June, 2020.
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