Osinbajo Not Under Investigation ― Reps
Following insinuations in some quarters that the House of Representatives was investigating Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on the expenditures incurred in the implementation of the school feeding program, its Committee on Public Accounts has said otherwise.
Chairman of the House Committee, Hon. Wole Oke gave the clarification while addressing the Permanent Secretary of Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget & National Planning, Mrs. Olusola Idowu Tuesday.
Oke explained that the ongoing probe was to comprehensively get documentary evidence of the procurement carried out by the Federal Ministry of Budget & National Planning.
He said: “By our records, the office of the Vice President is responsible for policy formulation and monitoring of the National Social Investment Programme.
“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.
“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.
“A total of N1.79 trillion was budgeted for the program for which over N600 billion was expended. The Bank of Industry has appeared and made some explanations.
“The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs has also appeared and made their presentation on N-Power. We have also had presentations from the Programme Officers of the other three programmes. “Our interest now is on the Home School Feeding programme and that is what the Ministry to give us records of procurement.
Nobody should make a mistake about that and our mission is not available for anybody to use to malign anybody. We want to put that on record that we are not investigating the office of the Vice President.”
The Chairman further asked Idowu to liaise with a three-man Ad-hoc committee to reconcile their audit queries and report back to the Committee for further legislative inputs.
Ayooluwa Joshua