The Senate has ordered the Ministry of Justice to stop further disbursement of the N10.4 billion judgment debt to beneficiaries.
Also it ordered the ministry to re-constitute the committee responsible for disbursing the debt and forward evidence of same to the Auditor-General and the Senate panel within 30 days.
Tge Senate accused the Ministry of Justice for not providing the details of how the judgement debt was disbursed to beneficiaries.
This was sequel to the consideration of the 2017 and 2018 reports of the Senate Public Accounts Committee chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide.
The committee which investigation the financial books of government agencies, relied on the audit report submitted to the parliament by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation
The Auditor-General’s report revealed that the committee, which supervised the disbursement of judgement, debt was dissolved in 2013.
According to the committee, as of the time the N10.4bn was disbursed by the Ministry of Justice in 2017, another committee was yet to be reconstituted.
The report said lack of control, as witnessed in the disbursement of the judgement debt, could lead to loss of public funds.
It, therefore, recommended that the Solicitor-General of the Federation and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice immediately reconstitute the committee as required by law.
“Further examination revealed that the committee saddled with the responsibility of managing the fund was dissolved after the 2013 financial year and is yet to be reconstituted after the 2016 and 2017 appropriations.
“However, the ministry has been disbursing this sum without a committee in place. Lack of control could lead to loss of public funds.”
The Senate adopted the report of its panel after it ordered that the committee responsible should be reconstituted.
