Budget Office Never Approved Controversial Council, No Funds Were Released – DG Tells Reps

The Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, has told the House of Representatives that the office neither established nor funded the controversial council currently under investigation, insisting that no public funds were released to it.

Yakubu made the clarification while appearing before the House Ad-Hoc Committee probing the alleged unlawful establishment and funding of the council. He explained that the Budget Office only carried out its statutory responsibility of assessing the financial implications of approvals issued by other government institutions.

“The Budget Office did not create the council. It did not assign its budget code. It did not approve its establishment. It did not grant its recruitment waiver. It received official instruments and did what the law required of it. It measured their fiscal effect,” he told lawmakers.

The DG disclosed that although the council requested N3.8 billion for personnel costs, the Budget Office rejected the proposal and conducted its own independent assessment based on the approved staff strength and the applicable public service salary structure.

“That estimate did not form the basis of the Budget Office’s recommendation. The Budget Office rejected it and made an independent calculation. That calculation produced N802.98 million. This was not a concession to the council. It was the Budget Office’s own fiscal proposal,” Yakubu said.

He stressed that the personnel allocation never resulted in any spending because the mandatory financial clearance required before recruitment and salary payments was never issued.

“There was therefore no financial clearance. There was no lawful recruitment. There was no payroll enrolment. There was no salary payment,” he said, adding that not a single naira of the personnel allocation had been accessed.

Yakubu further revealed that the council’s N200 million overhead allocation remained untouched because treasury warrants and cash backing were never approved. Likewise, the N300 million capital allocation never progressed beyond the budget stage as the required procurement processes, including approvals from the Ministerial Tenders Board and the issuance of a Certificate of No Objection, were never completed.

“No procurement reached the point at which expenditure would arise. No Ministerial Tenders Board approved a transaction. No Certificate of No Objection was issued. No treasury warrant followed. No treasury cash-backing followed,” he explained.

During the hearing, members of the committee questioned the legal basis for making budgetary provisions for the council after examining what they described as a purported Act establishing it. Lawmaker Abubakar Fulata argued that the document lacked key features of a valid law, including a gazette number, the signature of the Clerk of the National Assembly and presidential assent.

Responding, Yakubu maintained that the Budget Office relied on official establishment approvals, recruitment waivers and salary directives issued by the appropriate government authorities rather than documents submitted by the council itself.

Committee Chairman Rep. Yusuf Gagdi defended the Budget Office, saying the evidence before the panel showed it acted in line with established procedures. He noted that the investigation had now shifted to determining how forged documents allegedly entered official government channels.

“The question is whether the Budget Office allocated budget to this agency without the agency satisfying the requirements. The answer, based on the documents before us, is no. I repeat, no,” Gagdi said.

He added that the committee’s focus is now on identifying those responsible for introducing the alleged forged documents into the government’s approval process.