
Senate Committee on Public Accounts has criticized the National Orientation Agency (NOA) over payment N2 billion as cash advances to some members of staff, which was not retired.
It also faulted the agency for disbursing the sum of N129 million cash to some members of staff instead of paying the money direct into their accounts as stipulated in Circular on E-payment Ref No. TRY/A8&B8/2008 OAGF/CAD/026/VOL.11/465 dated 22nd October, 2008 .
Senator Mathew Urhoghide,who chaired the committee based the query on the 2016 report of Auditor General of the Federation, which is being considered by Senate Committee.
He said the agency did not attached the vouchers used in spending the N2 billion to the documents submitted to the Committee, but only presented Journals to justify the expenditure, which was not acceptable by the lawmakers.
The Director- General of NOA, Garba Abari, pleaded for more time for the agency to look for relevant vouchers supporting the expenditure.
But a member of Committee, Senator Peter Nwaboshi asked the agency to explain which emergency programme warrants the need to take N129 million cash to a venue.
The officials of the agency were unable to give cogent response to Senator Nwaboshi question, which generated a heated debate on the query.
The committee, however, yielded to the request of the Director General of the agency for more time to address issues raised in the query.
The committee adjourned the meeting with NOA till 27th May, 2021 in order to prepare adequately.