The Senate has asked the Office of Accountant General of the Federation to recover the N76bn loans in possession of some federal agencies and pay them back to the Special Funds Accounts.
The red chamber also warned the Accountant General, Idris Ahmed, against further withdrawals from the account without the approval of the National Assembly
The Senate took the decision after considering the report of its Public Accounts Committee on the 2015 report of the Auditor General for the Federation.
The report, presented penultimate week by the SPAC Chairman, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, explained that the amount was taken as a loan from the special account and paid to some agencies sometime in January 2015.
Some of the beneficiaries are the Independent National Electoral Commission, the Nigerian Army, Office of National Security Adviser, among others.
The funds, according to the report, were drawn from the 25 per cent Husked Rice Levy, one per cent Comprehension Import Supervision Scheme’s pool levy, 15 per cent Wheat Grain Levy and 10 per cent Rice Levy.
The loans were not repaid, according to the report.
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The Audit Report which SPAC worked on explained that N922.4m was withdrawn from 25 per cent Husked Brown Rice Levy as Loan while N7bn was also collected from the one per cent CISS levy as loan.
It added that N10bn was given to INEC as loan to finance the 2015 general elections.
The record further showed that additional N7bn was paid to INEC bringing the total loans advanced to the agency on January 12, 2015 to N17.92bn, which had not been repaid to the source.
The report added that the 15 per cent wheat grain levy, totaling N31.4bn was released to the Nigerian Army, the National Youth Service Corps, Revitalisation of Universities Infrastructures Account and the Federal Ministry of Agric and Rural Development.
The Federal Ministry of Agric and Rural Development, according to the report, got N10.2bn to fund the 2013 dry season farming.
The Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, got part of the N37bn from the Rice Levy account
Other beneficiaries of the N37bn were the Office of National Security Adviser, the Nigerian Customs Service, the Nigerian Communication Satellite Operation the INEC, and NELMCO.
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