The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has arraigned the Acting Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund, Mrs Adesola Taiwo, for operating the agency’s budgets between 2018 and 2021 without the approval of the National Assembly.
The committee promised to investigate how the ITF operated over the years without a budget appropriated by the National Assembly.
This, as shown at the investigative hearing on Wednesday, is contrary to Section 81 of the 1999 Constitution.
The Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, ordered an immediate probe, directing the panel’s clerk to write and request evidence of how the ITF conveyed its annual budgets for the years under review, from the Clerk to the National Assembly and the Clerk to the House of Representatives.
The ITF, in its written submission to the committee, said it spent N37,592,730,753 in 2018; N43,133,753,661 in 2019; N43,468,030,400 in 2020; and N43,947,801,437 in 2021.
The extra-budgetary spending was discovered while grilling the management of the ITF, which was placed on status inquiry by the committee.
The lawmakers also expressed their displeasure with the non-appearance of the acting DG, who was represented by the Director of Finance and Administration, Yusuf Abdulmajid.
When asked about the location of Taiwo, who was supposed to appear before the committee, the DFA replied that she was on annual leave, which prompted him to represent her.
The committee, however, insisted that the acting DG must appear in person unfailingly on Tuesday along with a copy of the letter showing approval of the leave.
