The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Beatrice Jeddy-Agba, informed the Senate Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday that the paperwork holding the request and authorisation for the N2.2bn service-wide vote was missing, causing chaos on the Senate floor.
The Ministry of Justice was instructed to submit documentation last month about the approval of N2.2bn from a service-wide vote between 2017 and 2021 by the committee chaired by Senator Mathew Urhoghide.
However, when Jeddy-Agba appeared before lawmakers on Tuesday, she lamented, “They have checked the relevant documents, but they can’t find it. It is quite unfortunate.
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“The departments of finance and accounts are responsible. I can assure you that this request was made. We could not find any document, probably as a result of poor record keeping, and we could not find the request and approval letters.”
In his response, the chairman said the committee had yet to see any letters of request or approval, and this would only mean extra-budgetary spending.
Uroghide questioned, “Who gave the approval? We have not seen any letter of approval or request.
“I believe this committee is magnanimous enough; what this means is inept, and it is not nice that you cannot find the approval and request letters. The recommendations of the committee will not be nice.”
The committee, therefore, ordered the ministry to provide the documents by Thursday, December 1, 2022.