Senators kick as Police Trust Fund spends N550m on renovation, furniture

Members of the Senate Public Accounts Committee slammed the Police Trust Fund for spending N550 million on office renovation and furniture from the N3.2 billion it collected from the Service Wide Votes.

The committee is investigating 252 agencies over the spending of N5 trillion from the Service Wide Votes (SWV) between 2017 and 2021.

#EndSARS memorial: Why we fired tear gas at protesters — Police

Bompai market: Court orders police to investigate 2 Kano agencies’ MDs

Service Wide Vote (SWV) is the country’s contingency fund in the annual budget.

The management team of the Police Trust Fund led by its Executive Secretary, Abdullahi Bala, appeared before the Senate panel on Thursday to explain how the sum was spent.

But the committee’s members were shocked when they discovered in the document submitted by the agency that N550 million was spent on office renovation and furniture.

Specifically, a member of the Committee, Senator Michael Nnachi, drew the attention of the Executive Secretary to page seven of the document, where the same project was given different line items.

The breakdown of the expenditure showed that Office furniture and Equipment gulped N200m; renovation and partitioning, N100m; and Office Rehabilitation, N250m.

Responding, the Executive Secretary explained that the building was confiscated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and given to them for use as an office building, hence the need for the expenditure.

The Vice Chairman of the committee, Senator Ibrahim Hadejia, directed the agency to furnish the committee with all the relevant documents related to the contracts for the renovation and rehabilitation.

He said, “Get us your details, and come with procurement documents and procurement officer next week.”