By Jonathan Lois
The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Utilization of Ecological Funds and other intervention funds into the Great Green Wall Project Thursday queried the agency over N697.17 million spent on renovation of office accommodation.
Also under scrutiny is N11.28 billion spent on capital projects as well as claiming ownership of some projects carried out by lawmakers under constituency project as the agency’s projects, and exclusion of three States in the tree planting exercise
The committee which frowned at the spendings by the agency without tangible results, raised eyebrows over the agency’s claims that N81b naira was used to plant trees in eleven states.
The Chairman of the panel Hon. Dabo Ismaila Haruna had earlier disclosed that his probe panel is not to witch-hunt anybody or public servants but to investigate and recommend adequately for the government on certain urgent measures for the country to move forward.
The Chairman further explained that relevant stakeholders including the National Agency for the Great Green Wall, the Federal Ministry of Environment, the Ecological Funds Office, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation as well as some state governments have been invited to shed light on the utilization of the funds on the Great Green Wall Project.
According to the Chairman of the Ad-hoc committee, his committee has requested from critical stakeholders relevant documents on the nominal roll of staff of the agencies, the annual audited account statements, capital project operations account, bank details and other relevant documents which will enable them to state facts when making recommendations.
During the hearing, facts were uncovered from available documents submitted to it that over N81 billion had been spent by the lead agency in tree planting in eleven frontline states of the North-East and North-West geo-political zones being covered by the agency.
The submission did not go down well with the lawmakers even as the agency also said they planted 21 million trees in 11 front-line states across the country.
In another development, the Committee also quizzed the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, over seven accounts opened by the agency and domiciled with it but noted that one of the agency, ‘s project funds is in domicilary accounts.
Other infractions committed by the Great Green Wall agency as queried by the probe panel include N697.17 million spent on renovation of office accommodation, N11.28 billion on capital projects as well as claiming ownership of some projects carried out by lawmakers under constituency project as its project and exclusion of three states in the tree planting exercise.
The Great Green Wall Project according to the Director-General of the agency Dr.Yusuf Maina Bukar was a flagship project and brainchild of the Federal Ministry of Environment to address drought, deforestation, and some other environmental challenges in the arid zones of Nigeria.
He said that the agency’s main source of funding is from 15,% of Ecological Funds and Federal Allocation adding that over 21 million trees had been planted in the chosen northern states to forestall desert encroachment.
Fielding questions from some other members of the House panel on the statistics of the trees planted, he said that 21 million trees were planted adding that some of the trees were not seen due to vandalism while some other environmental challenges and other factors affected others.
In another presentation before the House Committee, the Accountant-General of the Federal Oluwatoyin Madein represented by Deputy Director Irene Nwangwu said that the agency had received a total of N19, 377, 726,506.95
The Committee Chairman Hon.Haruna said that the agencies that were invited by the Committee must reappear on Tuesday, September 2, 2023 at 11.00am
for the continuation of the probe.
The States are: Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno.
According to the 6-page documents with Reference No: BKS/CSO/CON/NASS/005/082 dated 22nd August, 2023 submitted by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), total sum of N9,465,960,382.57 was domiciled in the Agency’s account from 2015 to date.
Meanwhile, the documents submitted by the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Mrs. Oluwatoyin Madein showed that total sum of N19.378 billion was released from the Derivation & Ecology Accounts to the Agency from February 2019 to date.
In addition, the Agency also received the sum of N11.023 billion as capital expenditure through the oAGF.
According to the AGF’s Director, Mrs. Irene Nwangwu, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the release of N2.309 billion to the Agency as September, 2020 Statutory 5 percent Ecology Fund.
While responding to questions from the lawmakers, NAGGW Managing Director, Dr. Yusuf Bukar, the Great Green Wall Act which was signed by Mr. President in 2015, enables the Agency to implement the Nigerian component of the programme as an initiative of the African Union being implemented in 11 Africa countries to coherently address the problem of land degradation, desertification, drought, climate change and livelihood of affected communities.
He added that the Fund accruing into the Agency’s account include: 15 percent of the ecological fund for the Great Green Wall, contribution of fund from the natural resources development fund and gifts, loans and grants in aid from national bilateral, multilateral organisations and donors international and development agencies as well as individuals.
While responding to questions bothering on various infractions in the implementation of its activities, he however affirmed that the Agency has deviated from its original mandate.
