Africa (Commonwealth Union) _ The National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW) is reported to have spent N81.2 billion to plant 21 million trees across 11 frontline states, according to a report released yesterday by the House of Representatives. Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe, and Borno are the states in question.
The legislators questioned some of the expenditures made over the examined period of time during an investigative hearing on “Utilisation of ecological funds released to NAGGW from 2015 until date.” Isma’ila Dabo served as its chair. The contradicting financial reports provided by the agency, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (oAGF), and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) angered the lawmakers.
Remember that the House decided to form an ad hoc committee to look into how the ecological money given to NAGGW were used during a plenary session in July. After carefully reading the committee’s papers, the lawmakers who spoke noted that N11,28 billion was spent on capital projects and constituency projects, while N697.372 million, N500 million, and N480.657 million were spent on renovating office space.
The senators also questioned why billions of naira were kept in the agency’s account for a number of years without being transferred back to the government coffers as required by current financial standards.
The MPs bemoaned the fact that the agency has not conducted a financial audit since its formation and expressed disapproval over the enormous sums spent on capacity building and other subheads that do not correspond to NAGGW mission.Recall that in 2015, some Federal Ministry of Environment officers misappropriated N1 billion that belonged to the agency, but the Independent Corrupt Practises and other Related Offences (ICPC) Commission was able to retrieve it. However, Investigators said that Bureaux de Change and a few financial institutions helped carry out the illegal payments.
