Okey Onwuchekwa
1 July 2008
Lagos — FEDERAL Ministry of Transportation (FMT), weekend, refuted allegation that it paid a princely N30.9 billion within six days (December 26 to December 31, 2007) to contractors contrary to a presidential directive that all unspent budget should be returned to the treasury.
Permanent secretary of the Ministry, Ammuna Lawan Ali in a statement made available to Daily Champion said the Ministry did not have N30.9 Billion in the said central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) account in December 2007.
Daily Champion recalls that a member of the senate probe panel on Transportation, senator Patricia Akwashiki had on June 26 accused the Ministry of withdrawing N30.9 billion in six days.
Reacting to the allegation, Ali said that the Transportation Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison - Madueke was not privy to the document that Senator Akwashiki based her accusation on.
"FMT did not have N30.9 billion in the said CBN account in December 2007. On the contrary, only the sum of N17.3 billion was available in the account, out of which the total number of cheques issued in December 2007 amounted to N5.8 billion. These cheques were based on earlier mandates and were completely unrelated to those paid out based on the aforementioned N30.9 billion", he stressed.
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