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| AGF Abubakar Malami |
The Federal Ministry of Justice has been found to have not followed due process in the disbursement of sums awarded as judgement debt against the Federal Government.
This finding was upheld by the Senate, following a report by the Office of the Auditor-General (OAGF) which stated that between 2017 and 2018, N10.4 billion was earmarked as judgement debts and disbursed without the required committee.
According to the OAGF report, the ministry had not had such a committee since 2013. Abubakar Malami, who has been the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) since 2015, was in charge during this period.
On May 10, the Senate adopted the findings of the report, which were made available to the public over the weekend. The Senate Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Senator Mathew Uhroghide of Edo South, examined the OAGF’s report.
“Examination of the budget of the federal ministry of justice revealed that the sum of N460.95 million was appropriated for payment of judgment debts for 2016 and N10 billion appropriated for 2017, totalling N10.46 billion,” the report reads.
“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.”
The report said if the practice is allowed to continue, the federal government would lose funds earmarked to pay judgement debts.
The senate agreed with the OAGF that the ministry of justice should discontinue the payment of the funds and constitute a panel for that purpose immediately.
The upper legislative chamber resolved to forward the findings to the office of the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) for further action.