EFCC to investigate contracts awarded by National Assembly

efcc freezes accounts

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has reportedly sent a letter to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mohammed Sani Omolori, and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Budget and National Planning over the budget padding scandal and contracts awarded by the National Assembly.

According to The Nation, the EFCC had on Tuesday launched full investigation into the budget padding scandal in the House of Representative and also the award of contracts by the National Assembly.

Omolori was asked by the anti-graft agency to provide document on contracts awarded by the Assembly from June 2015 to date while the Permanent Secretary will provide details of the budget.

In the letter, the EFCC asked the clerk for the “list of all contracts awarded by the Assembly from June 2015 to date.” And also to “provide the beneficiaries of the contracts, the account details into which payments were made, the total amount already paid for each contract as well as the outstanding balances where applicable.”

While the Permanent Secreatry is to provide a “draft copy of the 2016 budget submitted to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari and the final copy returned to the President by the National Assembly.”

According to a source in the EFCC privy to the matter told the Nation that “Although no timeline was indicated in the two letters, the Clerk  and the Permanent Secretary are expected to treat it with dispatch.

“All these documents are vital to the ongoing investigation of all the petitions with us.”

“We engaged Jibrin between 1pm and 5pm on the allegations in the petition he filed before this commission including those already in the public domain and the new ones presented to us.

“The allegations include alleged insertions of N40billion projects into the 2016 Budget by the Speaker, padding of the budget with projects worth over N284billion and padding of the budget by some committee chairmen.”

The EFCC source also stated that Jibrin accused the leadership of the House of duplication of contracts, renting of Guest Houses for the Speaker  at very high rate, receiving of self-rent by the Speaker and others at inflated cost when they have already got accommodation allowances and abuse of office and mismanagement of funds by House leadership.

 

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