NATIONAL: Most agencies did not utilise N226.8b Covid-19 funds allocated to them – Auditor-General

*’The core reason may be delays in the administrative processes for accessing the available funds’

A REPORT from the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation says most agencies failed to use the Covid-19 containment funds allocated to them through the Presidential Task Fund as well as funds received through their annual budgets.

Recall that in the heat of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria funds were mobilised from different sources including corporate Nigeria and wealthy individuals to tackle the spread of the lethal infection.

According to the interim report from office on the special audit of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, a total of N226.85b was mobilised to combat Covid-19 between March and June 2020.

The report, signed by the Auditor-General for the Federation, Anthony Ayine, stated that funds allocated to the PTF and the participating agencies for the containment of COVID-19 were either not utilised or had low levels of utilisation as of 30th June 2020.

“Majority of the participating agencies failed to use funds allocated to them through the PTF and directly through their annual budget towards the COVID-19 interventions as the level of funds utilisation was 23.4 per cent across the 21 participating entities, said the report.

It, however, added that the total expenditure may not have been captured as the PTF claimed that some were still being processed.

The report stressed that the funds from the existing budget amounted to N24.6bn.

Explaining the source of the funds made available for participating agencies, the report stated that the funds, though sourced from 2020 annual budget, were mainly from existing envelopes and would be redirected to Covid-19 envelopes.

“The agencies were unable to spend the funds without proper approval of virement from the previous purposes (line items) to Covid-19 specific line items,” the report stated.

It added that the level of expenditure on Covid-19 from the 2020 appropriation of each participating agency was unclear.

The auditor-general made it clear that how the PTF and the participating agencies spent the funds remains foggy.

“These funds amounted to N4.5bn for the operations of the PTF and N17.6bn for the participating agencies,” it stated.

The report added, “We understand the core reason may be delays in the administrative processes for accessing the available funds. The extent of expenditures accrued and awaiting settlement is not fully visible to the PTF.”