•Nigerian Senate
The Ad-hoc Committee has hired forensic auditors the Senate mandated to investigate the N30trillion Ways and Means advances the federal government took from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from 2014 up to 2023, to scrutinise documents of agencies appearing before it.
It was learnt yesterday that the engagement of the forensic experts was part of the latest steps taken by the panel to ensure a thorough investigation and get to the bottom of how the advances were utilised, reports Nigerian Tribune.
It was also the reason, the panel, which is chaired by Sen. Isah Jibrin (APC, Kogi-East), secured a second extension of time from the Senate on July 7 till September to submit the report of its findings.
Making the disclosure to the newspaper in Abuja, Jibrin, who doubles as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs and Excise Duties, said a good number of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under the radar of the committee had supplied the information asked of them.
He added that the probe had progressed to a stage where the committee had to tarry a little in order to hire forensic auditors to scrutinise the information before it.
Jibrin explained further, “The essence of asking for the extension of time is to bring in forensic auditors, and I am happy to tell you now that we did that. We have already engaged them and they are working.
“We have been able to take the investigation to a particular level, but as it stands today, the next level, which was why we asked for the extension of time, is for the forensic auditors to continue from where we have reached.”
Asked whether Nigerians should expect shocks, surprises or scandals from the outcome of the assignment, Jibrin replied that the parliamentary procedure was not for the panel to release reports in bits to the public, but would rather conclude its work and report to the Senate in plenary.
“All I will say is that we have made progress. I can’t be talking about whether there will be shocks or surprises.
“I can’t predict the ultimate result of the investigation, but it’s the outcome that will tell what is there.
“Besides, the investigation is not targeted at anyone; it is to improve on good governance and to make sure that things are done the right way, always, ” he added.
Jibrin also said though the Senate was aware that the Executive arm of government was also reviewing the same ways and means advances, the two arms were working independently on the issue.
“We are working independently.
If we were satisfied with what they are doing, we wouldn’t have gone into our own investigation.
“I have not seen the result of their own investigation, but we feel that as the Senate, we need to investigate what happened during the period under review, and that is exactly what we are doing.
“We may or may not arrive at the same result eventually”, the lawmaker told our correspondent.
The federal government uses the Ways and Means window by taking advances from the CBN to fund budget shortfalls in an amount equivalent to five per cent of the previous year’s revenue.
However, governments over the years tend to apply the rule in breach, making the CBN to bend backwards to exceed the legal limits.
The current administration of President Bola Tinubu, which instituted an administrative review of the system, had through the CBN Governor, Mr Olayemi Cardoso, declared in February that no further ways and means advances would be granted until the outstanding debts were fully paid back.
