–– says expenditure controls prevented PEAC/PFIPC funds from becoming public spending
By Our Correspondent
The Budget Office of the Federation has declared that the said ₦1.3 billion appropriated by the National Assembly for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PEAC/PFIPC) never became public expenditure, as no kobo was spent, even as statutory financial controls blocked all payment processes before any funds could be released.
In a detailed statement issued Friday in Abuja, the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu explained that an appropriation does not automatically translate to expenditure, stressing that multiple institutional checks must be satisfied before public money can move from the Appropriation Act into the hands of any public funded agency.
“Public money does not move because a figure appears in an Appropriation Act,” Yakubu stated. “It moves only when the conditions prescribed by law have been met.”
According to him, the funds in question—totaling ₦1,302,978,783.00—were broken down into three components broken into — ₦802,978,783.00 for personnel (61.63%), ₦200,000,000.00 for overhead (15.35%), and ₦300,000,000.00 for capital expenditure (23.02%).
He said the personnel component of the expenditure never advanced beyond the proposal stage because Financial Clearance is mandatory – confirmation that all fiscal and regulatory conditions for recruitment have been satisfied—was never issued.
Yakubu noted that the 2026 Appropriation Bill only received Presidential Assent on 31 March 2026. Following assent, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had yet to confirm that the Council’s proposed staffing and remuneration arrangements complied with the approved public-service compensation framework.
“Until it is issued, the figure remains in the budget. It does not create staff. It does not open payroll. It does not produce salary,” the Director-General explained.
He emphasized that even under lawful circumstances, the personnel provision would not have been paid as a lump sum to the Council. He said salaries would have been disbursed monthly to verified employees, but that never commenced.
“Not one kobo of the personnel provision could lawfully have been drawn. Not one kobo was drawn,” Yakubu reiterated.
“There is no personnel expenditure to recover because there was no personnel expenditure spent, he added.
Yakubu cited the overhead provision of ₦200 million, which would have been released monthly at rates of ₦16.6 million per month, but was also blocked before any payment could be made.
The Director-General disclosed that in June 2026, when doubts emerged regarding the Council’s legal status, the Budget Office formally notified the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to withhold all payment instruments to the agency.
According to him, the ₦200,000,000.00 remained a provision in law. It did not become money in the hands of the Council.
Also, the ₦300 million capital allocation, described as a standard start-up provision for new public bodies meant for basic operational assets, failed to progress through the procurement chain required by law, the Budget Office stated.
“No procurement reached the point at which expenditure could arise. No Ministerial Tenders Board approved a transaction. No Certificate of No Objection was issued. No warrant followed. No Treasury cash backing followed,” he explained.
According to the Budget Office, PEAC/PFIPC did not enter the 2026 Budget merely by request. It stressed that the Council originated from the Presidential Economic Advisory Council inaugurated during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari, arguing that by the time budget preparation began, the Office of the Accountant-General had assigned an administrative code, and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service had approved an authorised establishment and recruitment waiver.
“The Budget Office did not create the Council. It did not assign its code. It did not approve its establishment. It did not grant its recruitment waiver. It received official instruments and did what the law required of it: it measured their fiscal effect,” it added.
The Director-General pointed out that the council had submitted a personnel estimate of ₦3.85 billion, but the Budget Office disregarded the figure and made an independent calculation of ₦802,978,783.00 using only authorised establishment data, approved recruitment waiver, and applicable salary structures.
Yakubu insisted that the system prevented loss, it did not chase it, describing the outcome as evidence of Nigeria’s expenditure-control system that functions as designed rather than a failure.
“The law did not recover money after it had gone. It prevented the money from going,” he said.
He explained that each of the three provisions encountered a different institutional control, stating that personnel expenditure stopped at Financial Clearance, overhead stopped before warranting and cash backing, and capital stopped before procurement approval release of funds.
“What has been called weakness is better understood as resilience. The controls did not identify a loss after the event. They prevented the event,” the Director-General noted.
According to the statement, the Budget Office pledges its full cooperation with any lawful inquiry into the matter, assuring that it will provide the records, computations, correspondence, and system evidence required to establish the facts.
The statement concluded with a firm declaration insisting that money never moved because the controls blocked it. (GSF)