The Ministry of Finance, Office of Accountant General of the Federation and Office of National Security Adviser, ONSA, have been given till May 4, to explain the secret withdrawal of alleged N7.5b from the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) account.
The amount represents 2 per cent of the NADDC development levy account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts had two weeks ago summoned the affected agencies to appear before it on the alleged issue, but the agencies were not present at the scheduled meeting on Wednesday, 28th April, 2021.
Presenting the details of the withdrawal before the Committee, the Director-General of the NADDC, Jelani Tukur said that the Agency had already written to the Minister of Finance, Ahmed Zainab and Accountant General of the Federation on the withdrawal of N3.7 billion as loan to NAFCON, withdrawal of N3.8 billion for security personnel car loan scheme and another withdrawal of N2.3 billion as loan to Steyrs Nigeria Limited.
While addressing the Committee, Tukur added that the agency had also written a letter to remind Niger Insurance Plc on the agreement reached on July 9th, 2020 as ordered by the Committee .
The first letters were written to Minister of Finance and Accountant General of the Federation on 23 April, 2021 and delivered to the Minister and Accountant General of the Federation on 26th April, 2021.
The second was written to the Minister on 26th of April and delivered to the Minister on 27th April while that of Accountant-General of the Federation was delivered on 26th of April.
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The Committee chaired by Senator Matthew A. Urhoghide said; “that all parties involved in the withdrawal of the money must be present by next week Tuesday and give the Committee assurance that the money would be returned to the NADDC’s Account which is domiciled in Central Bank, otherwise, the Committee will take a drastic action on the issue at stake.’’
Urhoghide urged them to bring evidence of the approval when coming on next week.
The audit query had said; “A total sum of N3,836,000,000.00 was irregularly withdrawn from the 2% National Automotive Council Levy Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, in 2 installments of N2,800,000,000 in 2006 by the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Finance as car loan to be granted for the Security Personnel Car Purchase Scheme Loan.
“The transaction was carried out by the Presidency in collaboration with the Bank of Industry, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Accountant-General of the Federation without the involvement of the National Automotive Council, the account owner.
“However the principal and the accrued interest from the fictitious loan have not been paid back nor are records available on the beneficiaries, agreement documents, moratorium, duration of the loan, the yearly interest rates accruable and how the fund will be paid back by the beneficiary.
“The Director-General has been requested to intensify correspondence with the Minister of Finance, Accountant-General of the Federation and the Presidency to recover the fund (‘loan’).”