The House committee summoned the FCT area council chairmen over failure to appear and defend budgetary allocations.
The House of Representatives Committee on Abuja Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and ancillary matters has vowed to investigate the six Area council chairmen over expenditure and budgetary allocations. The lawmakers insisted that the chairmen must appear unfailingly next week
Chairman of the committee, Rep. Fred Agbedi (PDP, Bayelsa) gave the charge during a hearing on Tuesday, which was attended by the minister of state for the FCT, Mariya Mahmud, and the six chairmen. He expressed displeasure that they had been dodging the invitation to explain how they have been spending the huge allocations.
He berated them, saying “your actions held the parliament in contempt,” adding that the committee was not witch-hunting anyone, but that anyone who is in public service must be accountable. He said: “After a budget cycle, you spend money, you need to account for it before you get other monies. But when you’re not responding to such, it means you’re running away from accountability. It means you have something to hide, and for us as a Committee, we’re prepared to work and ensure a better service is rendered to the people.
“As a Committee, the constitution provides that every public office holder must give account of stewardship. Some of the agencies submitted their reports, many others did not do anything for about a year, we’ve been waiting. Henceforth, we will invoke our powers because once you hold an office, you are supposed to render an account. Any agency which failed to do so is evading accountability, which the law provides for actions to be taken, including to cause an investigation of the agency concerned.”
Mahmud apologised for not being able to meet up earlier invitations and promised that subsequently they would work with the committee.
Also the Area council chairman for Kwali, Danladi Chia, also apologised on behalf his colleagues and promised they would be cooperative during the probe.
