The House of Representatives has summoned 83 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDA) of the Federal Government as it begins an investigation into the alleged mismanagement of over N447.6bn COVID-19 intervention fund from 2020 to 2022. At least 22 of the MDAs got not less than N447.6bn as COVID-19 funds in 2020 alone. The House invited the Ministries of Agriculture and Food Security, Communications and Digital Economy, Federal Road Maintenance Agency, and scores of other Ministries, Department and Agencies.
The invited MDAs are to appear before the lawmakers to respond to questions on mismanagement of COVID-19 intervention funds distributed among them to fight the global health pandemic.
In an invitation issued by the Chairman of the Committee on public accounts and a member representing Ede North/Ede South Federal Constituency, Osun State, Bamidele Salam, dated November 20, 2023, the lawmakers asked each of the MDAs to be represented by their “Chief Accounting Officers, Head of Finance, Head of Procurement and any other relevant officer to defend the expenditure contained in their various submissions.”
Others include the Federal Ministries of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mines and Steel Development, Water Resources, Health, National Hospital, Abuja, and National Directorate of Employment.
Recall that in October the house resolved to investigate allegation of mismanagement of the funds. The lower legislative chamber passed the resolution following the adoption of a motion sponsored by Nyampa Zakari, a lawmaker from Adamawa state. The house subsequently mandated the committee on public accounts to carry out the investigation and report to them within weeks.
The federal government had allocated funds to the MDAs in 2020 to tackle the spread of the virus and to cushion the resultant hardship, after receiving intervention from international organisations, including the World Bank.
