The House of Representative Committee on Public Accounts has yesterday revealed that they are not investigating the Office of the Vice President or the Vice President himself as being insinuated by some rumor peddlers. The Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Wole Oke stated this while talking to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning, Mrs. Olusola Idowu.
Oke explained that the present ongoing investigation is to enable them to lay hand on documentary evidence that would confirm the claim of the coordinator of the National school feeding program under the Social Investment Program being handled by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.
Although since the conception of the Social Investment Program in 2016, it was being operated from the office of the Vice President until 2019 when it was moved to Humanitarian Ministry.
The Social Investment Program (SIP) was set to provide a standard service delivery mechanism, with objectivity collaboration, synergy, and transparency with monitoring in mind.
However, each focal person was nominated at the state level by their respective state Governor to supervise its implementation. In all this, the office of the Vice President was never involved in any financial transactions or the disbursement of funds for the program.
The Ministry of Budget and National Planning was the sole office in-charge of disbursing finances, budgeting, procurement, and release for the SIPs.
He added that by their record, the office of the Vice President is only responsible for policy formulation and monitoring of the SIP. In his statement, “Issue bothering on procurement was handled by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning which has now been merged with the Ministry of Finance.
“We have it on record that the Ministry of Budget and National Planning handled all issues of procurement from 2016 to September 2019 when the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs was created.
He further stated that “Our request is for the Ministry of Budget and National Planning to make available all relevant procurement records for the various items under the NSIP. Our investigation has nothing to do with the office of the Vice President but the Ministry.
