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The Senate has queried the alleged disappearance of N44,986,516,357.43 from the Military Pensions Board.
The funds, according to the upper legislative chamber, were allocated to the Board from the Service Wide Votes between 2013 and 2017.
Speaking when authorities of the Board appeared before the Senate Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, chairman of the panel, Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo State) mandated the Board to submit the required documents to the committee on or before Tuesday, May 8, 2018.
Specifically, he wondered why the Board could not defend the releases despite receiving a correspondence from the panel since November 2017.
According to the lawmaker, rather than furnish the panel with relevant documents, the Board supplied documents not relevant to the subject matter.
Urhoghide said: “We wrote a letter to you from the beginning that this is what we are interested in. What you did with the one we are asking is not reflected in your reply. The first letter to you was on 2nd of November last year. The total figure that we are expecting explanation from is N44.986 billion”.
A representative of the office of the Accountant General of Federation gave the breakdown of the N44.9 billion Service Wide Vote released to the Military Pensions Board to include: N13.5 billion for 2015, N16.6 billion for 2016 and N15.422 billion for 2017.
He, however, said no funds were released to the Board between 2013 and 2014.
A member of the committee, Phillip Gyunka (PDP, Nasarawa State) accused the Board of negligence. “This report you submitted is so haphazard. Somebody somewhere is not doing his job,” he said.
In his submission, Chairman of the Military Pensions Board, Adekunle Adesope, denied receiving any communication from the committee.
The Committee Chairman adjourned the meeting to Thursday, May 10, 2018.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
