Nigeria’s House of Representatives Adhoc Committee investigating ecological funds released for the Great Green Wall Project has uncovered how the National Agency for the Great Green Wall allegedly spent 81.2 billion Naira on the planting of 21 million trees across 11 states in the Northeast and Northwest.
The Managing Director of the agency, Yusuf Bukar, who appeared before the committee on Wednesday, explained that the 21 million trees that were planted in Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno States were vandalised, while others have been swept away by natural disasters.
The presentation by the agency’s Managing Director was further compounded by the conflicting financial reports submitted by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
The lawmakers, after scrutinising the documents presented, wondered how the sum of 697 million Naira and an additional 500 million as well as 480 million Naira were spent on the renovation of office accommodation, while about 11 billion Naira was spent on capital projects, including those captured under constituency projects carried out by federal lawmakers.
The committee also queried why the agency has refused to carry out any financial audit since its inception, despite the humongous amount spent on capacity building and other subheads that are alien to its mandates as provided in the Act establishing it.
The lawmakers also discovered several billions of Naira kept in the agency’s account for several years without returning such unutilized funds to government coffers, in line with extant financial regulations.
After taking presentations from representatives of the CBN Governor and the Accountant General of the Federation, the committee resolved to embark on an on-the-spot assessment tour of all projects executed under the scheme, to ascertain the claims by the agency.
(Editor: Ifeanyi Mark)
