Senate indicts justice ministry over N10.4bn judgment debt

The Senate has indicted the Ministry of Justice over failure to provide the details of how N10.4 billion judgment debt was disbursed to beneficiaries.

This followed the consideration of the 2017 and 2018 reports of the Senate Public Accounts Committee chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide.

The committee had probed the financial books of government agencies, using audit report submitted to the parliament by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation

The Auditor-General’s report stated that the committee, saddled with the responsibility of managing the disbursement of judgement, debt was dissolved in 2013.

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It said that as of the time the N10.4bn was disbursed by the Ministry of Justice in 2017, another committee had yet to be reconstituted.

The report said lack of control, as witnessed in the disbursement of the judgement debt, could lead to loss of public funds.

It, therefore, recommended that the Solicitor-General of the Federation and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice immediately reconstitute the committee as required by law.

The report read in part, “Examination of the budget of the Federal Ministry of Justice revealed that the sum of N460.95m was appropriated for payment of judgment debts for 2016 and N10bn appropriated for 2017, totaling N10.46bn.

“Further examination revealed that the committee saddled with the responsibility of managing the fund was dissolved after the 2013 financial year and is yet to be reconstituted after the 2016 and 2017 appropriations.

“However, the ministry has been disbursing this sum without a committee in place. Lack of control could lead to loss of public funds.”

The Senate, after adopting the report of its panel, ordered the justice ministry to stop further disbursement of the judgement debt and the committee responsible should be re-constituted and evidence forwarded to the Auditor-General and the Senate panel within 30 days.