Representatives summon 63 organizations for spending N2 trillion without Buhari's consent

 Over N2 trillion in unauthorized spending, the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has

called 63 organizations in total. 

The committee claimed that the institutions had adopted budgets that had not been approved by the National Assembly and presented to President Muhammadu Buhari. 

Oluwole Oke, the committee's chairman, also demanded proof of appropriation by the National Assembly in a letter to Ben Akabueze, the director general of the Federation's budget office. 

While the clerk delivers passed budgets to the Presidency for implementation, it is envisaged that the President would submit budgetary proposals from MDAs to the National Assembly.

On October 7, 2022, during a joint meeting of the National Assembly, Buhari chastised the parliamentary committee for approving government-owned enterprises without his permission. 

"Distinguished Senators, Honorable Members, you may recall that we earlier merged the budget of Government-Owned Enterprises into the FGN's 2019 budget submission," the president had remarked. The FGN budget's comprehensiveness and openness have been improved as a result of this. However, it has come to my attention that in order to get their budget approved and issued to them immediately, Government-Owned Enterprises communicate with the pertinent NASS committees directly.

I beg the National Assembly leadership to make sure that the budget I have presented today, which includes the GOEs' budgets, is returned to the Presidency when it has been approved. It is against the norms and has to stop because some National Assembly committees currently pretend to vote budgets for GOEs that differ from the budgets approved by me and convey such directly to the MDAs. 

The committee noted that the inquiry was based on the alarm raised by the President in a letter dated November 8, 2022, with Reference Number: HR/PAC/SCO5/9NASS/QUE.60/97, which was received at the Budget Office of the Federation on November 10, 2022.