The United State of America yesterday demanded to know how Nigeria withdraw and spend from its Excess Crude Account.

Nigeria had $20 billion in its Excess Crude Account in 2008, but was depleted to as low as about $400 million last year, before it built up to its current level of $8.4 billion.

The Counsellor of the American Embassy in Nigeria, Mr. Douglas P. Climan, who visited the Accountant General of the Federation Jonah Otunla in Abuja, also wanted to know how the unspent balance of capital is managed.

Climan said he was in Treasury House to understand the budgeting and operations of Federation Account, a statement issued by the spokesman of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Charles Nwodo said.

He, however, expressed his optimisms that the 2013 budget, which is estimated at N4.9 trillion and presented to the National Assembly last month, will be passed before 2012 fiscal year.

The Accountant General told the visiting American envoy that about 45,000 ghost workers have been detected through the Government Integrated Fiscal Management System (GIFMIS) and the introduction of Public Accounting System. He said: "This is a module of GIFMIS which began with 7 MDAs as pilot project, and since the inception, about 45,000 ghost workers have been detected."