Members of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts were shocked when the permanent secretary in the ministry, Aliyu Ahmed, said the ministry did not have any document related to the withdrawal of the money.

The Senate had last week given the ministry of Finance, Office of the accountant-general of the federation, and office of National Security Adviser till next week Tuesday to give an explanation on alleged “secret withdrawal of N7.5 billion from the two percent of the National Automotive Council Design and Development Council (NADDC) Levy Account domiciled with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

But speaking on behalf of the permanent secretary, a director from the Ministry, Mr. Teslim Akintoye said that the ministry of Finance did not have documents related to that transaction.

We don’t have any document to show for that transaction,” he said.

But the chairman of the committee, Sen Mathew Urhoghide, countered the representative of the ministry, insisting that approval was done in the ministry of Finance.”

Supporting the position of the chairman, the vice-chairman of the committee, Senator Hassan Hadejia wondered why they don’t have a document in the ministry to show from such transaction since everything emanated from the ministry of finance.

The representative of the office of accountant-general of federation, Alexandra Adeyemi, however, confirmed that the money in question was released adding that it will be recovered through the budgetary process.

The office of accountant-general of the federation failed to present the list of beneficiaries of the fund in question, adding that a part of the money was earmarked for car loans to security officers.

The committee was able to establish that the fund was withdrawn without the involvement of NADDC but after some years, they were notified.

After a heated debate on the matter, the Committee resolved to dig deeper into the secret withdrawal of N7.5 billion because there is no evidence that the money was paid back into the federation account.