The Senate has directed the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to refund N594 million illegal vehicle allowances into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government.
The resolution of the Senate followed its adoption of the recommendation of the Senate Public Accounts Committee on the 2018 report of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF) which indicted the agency.
The Committee said it sustained the indictment against the agency following its failure to appear before it defend the AuGF query against it.
Although, the Commission made a written submission, but failed to appear before the Committee chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP – Edo South).
The AuGF query reads: “In 2013, the Director -General, while serving as Executive Commissioner, was paid the sum of N39 million as monetized car allowances to run for four years, but two years on his appointment as Director General, he was again paid the sum of N84 million as monetized car allowances.
“In 2015, the Commission procured four project vehicles to meet its need at the sum of N144 million, but instead of making use of the vehicles for purposes they were acquired, the Director General and Commissioners turned them to their sole uses, which contravened chapter 9 (1)&(11) of the Commission’s Condition of Service.
“Also, the sum of N469 million was further expended on the payment of the monetized motor vehicle insurance in 2015 and 2016.
“In the view of the foregoing, payment of N39 million in 2013 and N84million in 2015, totaling N124million to the Director-General were not proper and cannot be considered as proper charges against Public funds.”
The Senate recommended the position of the Auditor General for the Director -General to refund N124 million paid to him and recover the sum of N469 million expended on the payment of monetized motor vehicle allowances and motor insurance allowances from the beneficiaries to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and forward the payment details to the Office of Auditor General.
Following the failure of the agency officials to appear before the panel, the later sustained the query of the AuGF and forwarded the recommendations to the Office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
The report of the Public Accounts Committee was upheld by the Senate last week.