The Senate Committee on Finance, Tuesday, asked the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, to provide details of lawyer paid $4m from the excess crude account (ECA) which is gradually going dry.
The accountant general had been invited to brief the Senators on the revenue projection for 2020 and to explain why the funds in ECA were diminishing.
Mr. Idris explained that the ECA had reduced from $2.2bn — which President Muhammadu Buhari inherited from former President Jonathan in 2015 — to $71.8m.
In 2016, funds in the ECA climbed to $2.6bn and later reduced to 2.4bn in 2017. He added that it further reduced to $631.4m in 2018 and $71.8m in 2019.
Giving more details about how the ECA reduced to the current state, he said the country took $254m from the ECA. But he ran into trouble when he said that while $250m was invested in the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, $4m was paid to a lawyer.
Furious, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Solomon Adeola, asked Mr. Idris to provide details of the lawyer who got $4m as professional fee. He was asked to give details of what the lawyer did to deserve such payment. But he could not answer the Senator.
The Accountant General, However, said he would have answers for the Senator before the end of the week.
Explaining why deposit to the ECA has reduced, Mr. Idris said “the money in this account is used to serve as buffer in the event of fluctuation in oil price or reduction in supply to the international market.
“The inflows into the ECA have been fluctuating due to the positive and negative variances in the price of crude.
“The transfer into the account has witnessed downward trend in view of the low prices, particularly from year 2015 to date. The balance in the ECA as of 2nd March, 2020 is $71,813,941.84.
He said no fund had been released for capital projects this year but N340bn would be disbursed before first quarter ends.
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