Civil Service Commission hid N11.7m in employee’s account – Reps

The premises of the Federal Civil Service Commission in Abuja

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts said on Monday that the Federal Civil Service Commission breached financial regulations by paying “over N11.7m” into the private bank account of one member of its staff.

The committee, which queried the commission for the act, said it found out that the money was approved for the hosting of an international conference in Abuja.

However, it stated that a member of staff kept the money in a private account as against the account of the commission.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Adeola Olamilekan, directed the commission to produce the employee, whose name was not given, on Wednesday (tomorrow) for questioning.

He also said the commission would explain what eventually happened to the money.

The committee called for the list of those who attended the conference where the N11.7m was purportedly spent.

Olamilekan said, “We cannot understand why an individual should be given such a huge amount to be paid into his or her personal account.

“Government money being paid into a personal account? What if he or she runs away with the money?

“It is illegal and unacceptable; it is against financial regulations and the committee will get to the root of the transaction.

“The affected member of staff should be brought before this committee by Wednesday.”

Olamilekan, who gave the directive to the Permanent Secretary of the Commission, Mr. Suleiman Mustapha, said the committee was also interested in knowing whether hotel accommodation was  provided for the foreigners who attended the conference.

According to him, the home governments of the foreign participants would have picked the bills of their delegates and not the commission since it was an international conference.

The committee also found out that another employee collected N493,000 to attend a conference but there was no documentation to justify the expenditure.

Similarly, a consultant was said to have been paid N900,000 by the commission without deducting tax and charges due to the government.