Chief executives of government agencies and other public officials, on several occasions, shun the invitations extended to them by the National Assembly to respond to allegations levelled against them or their agencies, especially regarding their financial records.
Federal lawmakers described the disregard to their invitations by some public officials as an affront on the legislature, alleging that some heads of agencies were not ready to be accountable for their spending of public funds.
In most cases, the federal lawmakers invoke the necessary provisions of the law, including arrest warrant, to compel heads of agencies to appear before them.
Sections 88 of the 1999 Constitution as amended empowers the National Assembly to invite any person holding a public office to give account of any expenditure, or where it suspects that there is any infraction or corruption.
Senate uncovers N120bn varying oil subsidy payments dailytrust.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailytrust.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
“The amounts reflected in FAAC records at the OAGF (Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation) of N443,940,559,974.80 as subsidy payments during the year 2016 is at variance with the total amount paid of N563,283,294,925.47 in the records of PPPRA as subsidy payments during the year 2016,” the report said.
But the National President of IPMAN, Elder Chinedu Okoronkwo, told the committee members that the union has over 50,000 members across the country.
He added that the agency did not know the real beneficiary of the N80 billion difference.
He said: “We have over 50,000 members cut across the nooks and cranny of the country. We don’t know the real beneficiaries of the subsidy payments. If you give us the list of the beneficiaries of the subsidy, we can now reach out to them.”
The Senate Committee on Public Account on Wednesday uncovered a differential of N120 billion in the payment of subsidy to the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulators in 2016.