Reps Order Police Service Commission To Refund N12 Million

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts on Monday ordered the Permanent Secretary in the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr. Istifanu Musa to refund N12 million to the nation’s treasury over suspicions that the money was misappropriated.

According to a query issued by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) to the PSC in 2015, the said amount of money was spent by the Commission on workshops in 2014 without budgetary provisions.

The AuGF’s Office alleged that in the workshop which was conducted in Nasarawa State in 2014, a payment of N12 million was made a year later to the beneficiaries of the workshop without appropriation, which it said was a clear violation of the nation’s Financial Regulations and consequently called for a refund of the funds into the nation’s treasury.

Deliberating on the query on Monday, the Committee which is headed by Hon. Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) highlighted various infractions in the disbursement that breached constitutional provisions, particularly section 80.

In his defence of the Police Commission, Mr. Instifanus Musa admitted that there were infractions in the payments but argued that all the necessary documents were made available to the AuGF in 2015 because the releases in 2014 came late.

In his ruling, Hon. Chinda said: “It’s glaring that the action violated Sections 80-81 which captures extra-budgetary expenditure.

“We uphold the report of the AuGF that the sum of ₦12 million should be refunded with a word of caution that MDAs should not unilaterally carry over expenditure,” Hon. Chinda said.

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