‘FG did not seize N26bn’–Amnesty Office

From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

The Amnesty Office has cleared the air on the controversy trailing the purported seizure of funds belonging to it, declaring that the unspent funds were returned to the coffers of the Federal Government.
The Amnesty Office said it was expecting the Federal Government to roll over the unspent money totalling N26bn which was the balance of its 2020 budget, to enable it quickly meet up with its outstanding obligations.
The Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (retd), stated this while reacting to a viral report that there was tension in the Niger Delta region following the decision of the government to seize the programme’s N26bn under the guise of unspent budgetary provisions.
Dikio in a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Media, Nneotaobase Egbe, however, clarified that the money was not seized by the Federal Government but it was mopped up on December 31, 2020, as part of the government’s financial process.
The statement insisted that PAP was not singled out for such exercise as it was customary for unspent money across the ministries, paraststals and agencies to be returned to the Federal Government’s coffers in line with the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy.
It said it had earlier written to the Accountant-General’s office on the need to roll over the money and release it to PAP to enable it meet all outstanding
obligations tied to the money in the budgetary year.

Dikio explained that since PAP was a special programme on national security, the programme should be considered for an exclusive rollover of its unspent budget, adding that all the money had been tied to specific activities necessary to maintain the peace in the Niger Delta.

He said: “In order to reduce the debts owed several contractors since 2014, a payment plan that was sequential was initiated starting with the oldest debt in consideration of vendors’ interest payments on loans secured from banks to execute their contracts. A total of 104 such debts based on our records of the
level of job completion have been paid as of December 31, 2020.