The Accountant General of the Federation ( AGF), Shamseideen Ogunjimi was put under fire by the Senate Committee on Finance during budget defence session on Thursday.
From the opening remarks of Chairman of the Committee Senator Sani Musa ( Niger East), to comments and questions fired at the AGF, it was an explosive day for him on poor releases of funds to MDAs, statutory bodies and what they termed, frustrating Centralized Payment System for contractors.
Senator Musa in his opening remarks, pointedly told the AGF that the attitude of his office to the committee is unfriendly and must change for the good of all .
” We are not going to take your budget until when we are satisfied that your office is ready to do things that will make things work for Nigerians through expected assurances from you .
“One of the issues that must be urgently resolved is the envelope budgeting system being used by the federal government on yearly basis but not producing desired results , requiring alternative model like performance based one “, he said .
In his comments, Senator Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central) , told the AGF that the Senate and by extension, Nigerians generally, are embarrassed by poor budget implementation being experienced since 2024.
“Here at the National Assembly , we have never seen contractors bombarding us on weekly basis for intervention on non payment of executed contracts .
” Impression given to us and Nigerians by government is that with removal of subsidy and harmonization of forex market , more revenue or more money , where is the money now? Why are contractors owed ? And why was it zero allocation for capital votes of most of the MDAs in 2025?”, he queried.
He added that the situation at hand in the country as far as poor budget implementation was concerned was very embarrassing and baffling .
Senator Muntari Dandutse (Katsina South) in his comments , wondered why N28triilion was reportedly generated by revenue agencies and yet 85% of contractors are being owed and zero allocation for most of the MDAs in 2025 capital component budget asking “what happened to the N28 trillion
” Even the introduced Centralized Payment System is not helping matter at all . The system is very compromised and seriously affecting the integrity of government “, he said .
Other Senators like Abdul Ningi ( Bauchi Central), Asuquo Ekpenyong ( Cross River South), Adams Oshiomhole ( Edo North ) ,Aminu Abbas ( Adamawa Central ) and Patrick Ndubueze ( Imo North), who admonished the AGF to tell President Bola Tinubu to look inward in guarding against sabotage ; also made punchy remarks .
However in his response, the AGF said indiscriminate contracts award made by many of the MDAs without availability of fund, created the mess at hand which according to him, brought up directive banning MDAs from contracts award without availability of funds .
He explained to the lawmakers that though challenges being faced with operation of Centralized Payment System, were not envisaged, but said that they are being addressed for seamless operation
” Yes, as the Accountant General of the Federation , my office is expected to disburse fund to relevant agencies at appropriate time but that can only be done if the fund is available because I must have the fund before I can disburse.
” I also want to remind us that ‘Ways and Means’ used in the past for such funding is no more for the good of the Nation’s economy “, he said .
For further critical engagement with the AGF, the committee thereafter went into closed door session with him.