The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Monday, November 23, declared that no money was misappropriated between September and December 2019.
Accordingly, Fashola denied he supervised the illegal payment of N4.6bn into private accounts when he served as Minister of Power, Works, and Housing.
This came in the wake of online reports which had stated that Fashola’s ministry paid over N4.6bn into personal accounts of directors and staff in four months, stressing that this was in clear violation of extant law.
The report claimed that between September and December 2019, the N4.6bn was illegally paid into the private accounts of some directors and employees of the then Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
But in reaction to the report, the works minister declared, “In all, no money was stolen or is missing. There is no smoking gun to criminalise Fashola.”
The minister also explained that the Federal Government in 2007 initiated a payment platform; called the Integrated Personnel Payment and Information System.
He argued that the current administration had been engaging all sectors of government to fully migrate to the IPPIS platform.
Fashola said, “What has happened is that not all government officials who, from time to time; needed to be paid for approved expenses were registered on the platform.
“In order to ensure that government work was not hampered, the directors of finance and accounts sought and obtained the approval of the accountant-general to pay these monies through the accounts of an approved few who were on the platform.”
He added, “Those so approved then collect the money and disburse to the beneficiaries; who sign receipts all of which are retired and available for verification; as approved by the accountant-general.”