ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, YENAGOA
The Presidential Amnesty Programme has said it returned some N26bn unspent funds to the treasury of the Federal Government in compliance with the extant financial guidelines of the government.
Special Adviser on Media to Interim Administrator of PAP, Mr Nneotaobase Egbe, made this known in a statement on Friday, dismissing reports that the Amnesty office was targeted in the return of the unspent funds.
He said the Treasury Single Account, which was developed to check corruption in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies applies across the board and not restricted to PAP.
He said the clarification came amidst concerns of huge obligations, including monthly stipends to beneficiaries of the programme, and those awaiting training, mobilisation, empowerment and contractors’ liabilities.
Egbe noted that the last quarter funds remittance came a few days to the terminal date for the 2020 fiscal year and the PAP was only able to disburse part of it as the payment portal shut the unspent N26bn
He said, “The PAP hereby states emphatically that it is true that N26 billion in the account was mopped up on December 31, 2020 as a part of the Federal Government wide financial process.
“It is not true that PAP was targeted or singled out as has been rumoured on social media. It has thus become necessary to state the facts as follows:
“In order to reduce the debts owed several contractors since 2014, a payment plan that was sequential was initiated.
“It started with the oldest debt in consideration of vendors’ interest payments on loans secured from banks to execute their contracts.
“A total of 104 such debts based on our records of the level of job completion has been paid as of December 31, 2020.
“Other verified payments could not be made before December 31, 2020 because PAP’s funds for September/October allocation and November/December allocation were received on the 28th of December 2020 and 29th December 2020, respectively.
“In compliance with the Federal Government’s anti-corruption and extant financial regulations, our system was only able to disburse a portion of these funds before the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account was automatically shut down.”
He further said that the Accountant General of the Federation was promptly notified of the need to rollover the funds to meet the obligation of the PAP to beneficiaries and contractors.
He said the Amnesty Office had informed the Minister of Finance on the need to release the funds to enable PAP to promptly meet its financial obligations to contractors handling training and empowerment contracts.
He added: “PAP is committed to prudently dispense its financial obligations based on extant financial regulations. We therefore urge our ex-agitators/delegates and communities and contractors to remain calm.
“We are sure that these issues would be resolved speedily, and PAP would receive exclusive rollover of funds going forward to avoid this type of situation in the future.
“PAP remains committed to restoring payment of stipends on the 25th of every month once the bumps are cleared.”