The Budget Office of the Federation says no funds were released or spent from the N1.32 billion appropriated to the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, PFIPC, in the 2026 budget.
The Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, disclosed this on Friday while appearing before a House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee investigating the alleged unlawful establishment and funding of the council.
Yakubu said the Budget Office neither established the council nor authorised its recruitment, salaries or operations, but only assessed the financial implications of approvals issued by relevant government agencies.
He said the council had initially requested N3.8 billion for personnel costs, but the Budget Office rejected the figure and independently arrived at N802.98 million based on approved staffing structures and the applicable public service salary framework.
According to him, the personnel allocation did not result in any expenditure because the required financial clearance was never granted.
“There was therefore no financial clearance. There was no lawful recruitment, no payroll enrolment and no salary payment.”
The DG also said the N200 million allocated for overheads was never accessed because no treasury warrant or cash backing was issued.
He added that the N300 million capital provision similarly remained unused, as the required procurement procedures were not completed.
“No procurement reached the point at which expenditure would arise. No Ministerial Tenders Board approved a transaction, no Certificate of No Objection was issued, and no treasury warrant or cash backing followed.”
During the hearing, lawmakers questioned the authenticity of the document purportedly establishing the council.
A member of the committee, Abubakar Fulata, said the document did not contain a gazette number, the signature of the Clerk to the National Assembly or evidence of presidential assent.
“The purported Act is not genuine because it did not carry the gazette number, the signature of the Clerk of the National Assembly or the signature of Mr. President.”
Yakubu, however, maintained that the Budget Office relied on official establishment approvals, recruitment waivers and salary guidelines issued by the appropriate authorities when making its budgetary calculations.
The committee chairman, Yusuf Gagdi, said the investigation had so far shown that the Budget Office acted on documents it believed were valid, adding that the focus had now shifted to determining how allegedly forged documents entered the government’s official processes.
Gagdi said the Accountant-General of the Federation would appear before the committee on Monday to explain how the council obtained its budget code.
The committee is expected to question other government agencies before concluding its investigation.
