The Senate Committee on Public Account was, on Tuesday, stunned when the Accountant General of Federation (AGF) said he has no details of 2015 Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information Service (IPPIS).

The Committee, led by Senator Matthew Urhoghide, asked the AGF, Idris Ahmed, represented by a director in his office, Adiro Emmanuel, to present the statement of Account and mandate of IPPS to the Committee to assist it in its current probe of the queries raised by the Auditor General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine, in his financial statement that indicted the Office of the Accountant General.

The AGF, who had last week, told the Senate Committee that the documents were available on-line and that his office could make them available on-demand, however, turned up at the Senate hearing empty-handed but with an excuse that his office had requested the documents from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Before the Senate Committee adjourned the meeting, its chairman, who recalled that the AGF had ample time to furnish his Committee with the documents since it was queried over the same document three years ago, however, gave Alhaji Ahmed two weeks to submit the documents.

He said: 'So, there is no document for IPPS since 2015. You were issued queried three years ago on the same document and up till now , you are yet to present the document.'

On the controversy surrounding the N596billion Ecological Fund, the Permanent Secretary, Ecological Fund in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Habiba Lawal, said she has no details of the accurate fund but noted that the Fund does not belong to the Federal Government.

She said: 'Over the years, the percentages in the ration given to the three tiers of government have changed but currently from 2004 till date, we have a sharing formula of federal government 1 per cent, state government 0.72 per cent, local government 0.60 per cent.

'Totally, it is 2.32 per cent. The 1.32 per cent does not come to the ecological fund office, it is shared directly at Federal Allocation Committee, every month. We don't know the amount. The only thing the ecological fund office knows is what is in 1 per cent accruable to the federal government, of which our office is part of.

'Within the one per cent meant for the federal government, the act setting up NEMA gives them 20 per cent of the accruable of monthly basis from the ecological fund to NEMA to discharge its functions in addition to whatever appropriation they are given from the National Assembly.

'Also, the national agency for the great green wall also had an act that gives them 15 per cent of federal share from the ecological fund.

'The third layer which is the North East Development Commission which will start taking from the month of January and they will take 10 per cent of the Federal Government share of the ecological fund.

'So the Federal Government 1 per cent share, this is what happens to it and it is not housed in the ecological fund office, but in the CBN under the custody of the office of the Account General Federation or if I may say under the office of the Minister of Finance.

'So what comes to the Ecological fund office in SGF's office is the fund meant for the specific projects the President has approved.

'That approval is what I will send to the Minister of Finance who will process and send to the Accountant General of the Federation and then the SGF's ecological fund account in CBN also will then be credited with the project funds.

'The ecological fund office cannot answer for the whole Federation funds because it is not in our custody and our job is to implement these projects.'

© Pakistan Press International, source Asianet-Pakistan