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Federal Government bars PTF from COVID-19 fund

Federal Government bars PTF from COVID-19 fund

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 Control has been barred
from having access to the multi-billion funds mobilised for the Federal
Government by members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS).

A new framework released by the Office of the Accountant-General of
the Federation (OAGF) on Tuesday May 5, revealed that disbursements of
all COVID-19 Fund, including those being collected directly by the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and those domiciled with commercial banks
shall be through appropriation.

Asides having N25.8 billion in the Private Sector Coalition Against
COVID-19 (CACOVID) Fund domiciled in CBN, President Muhammadu Buhari had
also approved the opening of five COVID-19 Donor Accounts which form
part of the existing TSA arrangement in Zenith Bank; Access Bank;
Guarantee Trust Bank; UBA; and First Bank.

The notice from the OAGF reads in part;

“Funds are to be appropriated directly to participating MDAs and
spending units, including the ministries of Health and Humanitarian
Affairs, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), among others,
rather than to an intermediary agency like the PTF.

“Administrative cost of the PTF shall be appropriated separately to the PTF secretariat.

“The advantage is that the respective spending units and their
accounting officers take full responsibility for funds appropriated to
them and likely bottlenecks at the PTF are eliminated.

 “Transparency is enhanced when funds are spread to more MDA than
when a huge amount is put under the control of a single entity.”

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning Mrs. Zainab
Ahmed has been directed to work with the PTF to determine the needs of
relevant MDAs, and also to “liaise with the National Assembly for
emergency passage of a supplementary budget for the utilisation of
COVID-19 donation based on estimated total collection for the year.”

MDAs that will benefit from the COVID-19 contributions are expected
to provide information to the public within seven days on how the money
is spent, and funds are to be transferred to the TSA sub- accounts of
spending units based on approval. The Federal Government further stated
that failure of any MDA to publish details of how they spent their
COVID-19 funds “will constitute early warning signs of mismanagement and
shall be deemed as contravention of this guideline.”

The notice added;

“MDAs shall present details of their needs together with estimated
cost. This will form the basis for allocation of funds and enable post
expenditure reporting and audit.

“All participating MDA are to provide information on all COVID-19
Fund transactions to any member of the public – individual or corporate –
under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) within seven days of
receiving the request.

“All collections into the commercial bank accounts are to be swept
into FGN Sub-Recurrent Account with the CBN. Failure to sweep all
balances within 24 hours shall be deemed a violation of the Presidential
directive on TSA which shall attract sanctions.”

While the OAGF will henceforth publish a daily treasury statement for
COVID-19 Fund outlining all the inflows into the fund and all the
outflows, MDAs will be publishing a daily payment report of
beneficiaries, purpose of the payment and the amount for any payment
above N5 million made out of the COVID-19 fund.

A monthly budget performance report for the COVID-19 fund shall be
published on the open treasury portal not later than 14 days at the end
of the month.

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