The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts is set to probe how the N83.9 billion meant to fight COVID-19 in Nigeria was utilised.
The funds were handed to the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, states as well as the MDAs to use and fight the pandemic.
According to a report by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, the funds were appropriated in the 2020 budget.
It said the PTF got N22.163 billion from the funds, MDAs, N24.635 billion while states received N17 billion.
Financial records which were sent to the Senate and House of Representatives’ Committees on Public Accounts, indicated that N16.9 billion was approved in the 2020 budget, N32.5 billion from the COVID-19 Special Account/Levy; while N34.5 billion was to be funded through donations from public and private sectors.
According to the audit report on the COVID-19 funds, N63.797 billion had been spent out of the total N83.9 billion disbursed to the agencies, other entities and states at the time the audit was conducted.
The report read, “In the course of implementing the COVID-19 intervention activities, funds mobilised from various sources as at 30th June 2020 include: N22.2bn was disbursed by the Federal Government to the PTF; N24.6bn was disbursed by the Federal Government to the participating agencies.
“N30.1 billion was raised by CACOVID and is under their direct management; N17bn was paid directly by the Federal Government to some States as support; N110.05bn in cash and in-kind was raised by 12 International Development Partners.”
The report noted that N21 billion was donated by the NNPC Group; while N1.9 billion was donated by the public and paid into designated accounts with five commercial banks.
The interim report, which covered findings from the audit of transactions amounting to N4.9 billion as at 30th June 2020 (N191 million at the PTF and N4.7 billion at participating agencies), noted that the COVID-19 funds were in most cases either not utilized or received low levels of utilisation as of the 30th of June, 2020.