The Senate Public Accounts Committee has summoned the management of the Presidential Amnesty Programme for allegedly paying N187m to organise end-of-the-year activities.

The money was meant for the supply of stationeries, consultancy services for an end-of-the-year meeting and vocational training.

The committee, led by Senator Mathew Urhoghide, hinged the invitation on the 2018 report of the Auditor-General of the Federation being scrutinised by the two chambers of the National Assembly.

The report indicted the Presidential Amnesty Programme for alleged financial mismanagement.

Reacting, however, the Presidential Amnesty Programme denied the allegation, insisting that reports suggesting that the transactions were done within the tenure of the Interim Administrator, Col. Milland Dikio, were the handiwork of persons desperately seeking to discredit him.

The SPAC at its sitting on Thursday noted with concern that a series of invitations had earlier been extended to the Presidential Amnesty Programme but that none of its representatives appeared.

The panel, therefore, scheduled another meeting with the agency before the new invite that would hold on Wednesday.

The AuGF report showed that PAP allegedly paid N75m to a contractor for the supply of stationery without due process and that it was not subjected to competitive bidding.

The report added that PAP allegedly paid N87m as  consultancy fee to a firm that organised the end-of-the-year conference for the stakeholders of the Niger Delta region.

The report added that the date and venue of the conference were not disclosed.

It alleged that N14m was paid for vocational training and empowerment for the provision of vocational training and empowerment/business set up for 24 Niger Delta youths at an institute in Akwuke, Enugu State.

The report revealed that the payment of 15 per cent (N14m) mobilisation was made without any evidence of a bank guarantee.

The audit query partly read, “Audit observed that a payment voucher No. OSAPND/OC-C/368/2017 dated 18th December 2017 for the sum of N 87,917,500  was paid for the provision of consultancy service to organise  end-of-year conference for the stakeholders of the Niger Delta region.

READ ALSO DSS starving, maltreating Kanu in custody, says IPOB

“Further investigation revealed the following: date and venue of the conference not disclosed; list of the stakeholders that attended the conference not attached and the communiqué/report of the conference was not sighted; no documentary evidence that the stakeholders’ conference was held.

“This could lead to misappropriation of public funds. The special adviser is required to respond to the issues raised in 1 to 4 above, otherwise, the sum of N 87,917,500 should be recovered and paid to treasury and evidence of recovery forwarded to the National Assembly and the office of the Auditor-General for the Federation for confirmation. In addition, sanctions in line with FR 3129 should apply.”

But PAP, in a statement by the Special Adviser to Dikio on Media, Mr Neotabase Egbe, said the incident raised occurred in 2017, and the circular for the query succinctly captured the date and other details.

The statement read in part, “The report widely circulated in some national dailies does not represent the true situation of things. The said incident for the supply of stationery and consultancy services for the end-of-the-year meeting happened way back in 2017. It was, therefore, surprising that for obvious monetary gains, mischief and deliberate action to discredit the interim administrator, the authors of the story couldn’t verify from the office.”