According to the Guardian, the House of Representatives held an inquiry hearing yesterday that exposed suspected financial irregularities in the spending of the National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW).
According to reports, the agency planted 21 million trees in 11 frontline states at a total cost of N81.2 billion. Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe, and Borno are some of these states.
The investigating committee, which was presided over by Isma’ila Dabo, expressed its displeasure with the contradictory financial reports given by numerous organizations, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (oAGF), and NAGGW itself. The inaccuracies were discovered while these parties’ provided documents were being examined.
The probe was sparked by a previous resolution passed by the House at a plenary meeting in July, which opted to form an ad hoc committee to examine how the ecological monies given to NAGGW since 2015 have been used.
Throughout the investigation, MPs voiced their concerns regarding certain expenses included in the documents:
Renovation and Accommodation Costs: Lawmakers noted that substantial amounts were spent on renovating office accommodation. Specifically, N697.372 million, N500 million, and N480.657 million were spent for this purpose.
Capital and Constituency Projects: The committee queried NAGGW’s expenditure of N11.28 billion on capital projects and constituency projects.
Warehoused Funds: Lawmakers questioned the rationale behind keeping significant sums of money in the agency’s account for an extended period without returning it to the government, as per financial regulations.
Audit and Capacity Building: The committee expressed concern that NAGGW had not conducted any financial audits since its inception. Additionally, they criticized the agency for allocating considerable amounts to capacity building and other areas that appeared to deviate from the agency’s intended mandates.
The investigation also revisited a previous incident in which the Federal Ministry of Environment officials allegedly fraudulently laundered N1 billion belonging to the agency in 2015; thankfully, the money was later recovered by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). It was discovered that the unauthorized transfers involved the cooperation of financial banks and Bureaux de Change.
