The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives on Thursday ordered the Federal Ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment, along with its past and present Permanent Secretaries, to jointly refund a whopping sum of N75 billion to the covers of the federal government with immediate effect
The Committee chaired by Hon Bamidele Salam (PDP-OSUN), gave the directive at the resumed probe of Ministries Departments and Agencies MDAs of the Federal Government on alleged mismanagement of COVID-19 intervention funds by the MDAs
The Committee lamented that the Ministry had shunned the three invitations extended to it based on audit queries from the office of the Auditor General of the Federation on the alleged mismanagement of the intervention funds
The Committee also grilled the Officials of the Federal Ministry of Health over the alleged mismanagement of the intervention funds and directed the officials to reappear before it within Seven days with relevant documents on how N10bn was squandered
On the other hand, the Rural Electrification Agency was given 24 hours within which to submit its defence on the several billions of Naira allocated to it and to appear before it on Monday for the defence of the submission
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon Bamidele Salam, who vowed that the Committee would do everything possible within the law to recover all mismanagement funds by the MDAs, declared that there would be no hiding place for the officials retired or serving responsible for such acts