The House of Representatives conducted an investigative hearing yesterday, revealing alleged financial irregularities in the expenditures of the National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW) according to the Guardian.
The agency purportedly spent N81.2 billion on the planting of 21 million trees across 11 frontline states. These states include Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe, and Borno.
Chaired by Isma’ila Dabo, the investigative committee expressed its dissatisfaction with the conflicting financial reports provided by various entities including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (oAGF), and NAGGW itself. The discrepancies came to light during the examination of documents submitted by these parties.
The investigation was prompted by an earlier resolution during a July plenary session, in which the House decided to establish an ad hoc committee to scrutinize the utilization of ecological funds allocated to NAGGW since 2015.
During the investigation, lawmakers raised concerns over specific expenditures highlighted 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 previous case of money laundry
The investigation also revisited a previous incident in which N1 billion belonging to the agency was reportedly fraudulently laundered by officials from the Federal Ministry of Environment in 2015.
Fortunately, this amount was subsequently recovered by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
It was revealed that the unauthorized transfers involved the collaboration of financial banks and Bureaux de Change.
