Commissioner faults Kaduna Assembly over ‘missing’ N560m
JUNE 26, 2013
The feud between the Executive and the House of Assembly in Kaduna State over an alleged missing N560m Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme fund deepened on Tuesday.
Former Commissioner for Finance in the state, who is now the Commissioner for Water Resources, Dr. John Ayuba, a key figure in the saga, said the lawmakers lied over the said missing funds.
The Kaduna House of Assembly had, through its adhoc committee, set up to investigate the implementation of the programme in the state, among others, alleged that there were many dubious transactions in the state’s share of the SURE-P, including the missing N560m from the fund for 2012.
The current governor, Alhaji Muktar Yero, was the Chairman of the SURE-P in the state while serving as the state Deputy Governor, up untill when the former governor, the late Patrick Yakowa, died in a helicopter crash in Bayelsa State in December last year.
The development led to the suspension of SURE-P in the state and the passing of a vote of no confidence on Ayuba.
The lawmakers also alleged that the Finance commissioner refused to furnish the House with necessary information on the implementation of the programme in the state.
The report had said, “The actual receipts by the Kaduna State Government of its share of revenue from subsidy reduction for the year 2012 stands at N2.24bn at a monthly rate of N280.398m from May to December, 2012.
“But there was no receipts for the months of January up to March, 2012, and no mention was made with regards to the month of April, 2012. However, a lump sum of N560m was said to have been received.”
However, dismissing the allegations, the commissioner told newsmen at a press conference in his office in Kaduna on Tuesday that there was no iota of truth in the report of the 11-man adhoc committee, describing the allegations by the House as “unfounded and lacking basis.”
He noted that except the House was acting a script, all the allegations were untrue. He described the vote-of-no-confidence in him by the House as unwarranted.
He insisted that the committee set by the state on the implementation of the SURE-P had performed its duties creditably well, noting that no fund allocated to the SURE-P from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, was missing in the state treasury as alleged by the lawmakers.
He explained that the ministry (Finance) under his tenure was not aware of any request by the House (adhoc-committee) for any information on the SURE-P receipts/expenditure other than its letter of May 28, 2013, to the Deputy Governor and forwarded to the Secretary of the SURE-P on May 30, “but was received on the May 31, to which response was forwarded the same day.”
Displaying a copy of the letter, the commissioner said “It is curious why the the House committee refused to quote the sections of the minutes that stated where the information requested by the SURE-P implementation committee was supplied.”
The commissioner insisted that the letter, with reference number LEG/COMM/S.344/VOL. 1/92 dated 10th June 2013(not June 23, 2013) as erroneously reflected by the House report, never come to him during his tenure as the Commissioner of Finance “since I had been redeployed to the Ministry of Water Resources and handed over the Ministry on May 31, 2013.”
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