BY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE & LEVINUS NWABUGHIOGU

ABUJA —  MEMBERS of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts were shocked, yesterday, when the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, OHSF, said N35 billion received from the Budget Office of the Federation over a period of nine years could not be accounted for.

The Permanent Secretary of the OHSF, Mr. Yemi Adelakun, who appeared before the committee,   claimed they received only N17.6 billion over the period, but the Budget Office declared the figure was wrong by reeling out documented evidence of the disbursement of the funds from the Service Wide Votes from 2004 to 2012 and received by the Office of the Head of Service.

Budget Office told the committee, led by Adeola Olamilekan, that the OHSF received well over N52 billion within the period under investigation.

The Budget Office said in 2004, the OHSF received N2.7 billion; 2005, N9.8 million; 2006, N701.7 million; 2007, N896.3 million; 2008, N5.3 billion; 2009, N612.9 million, plus another N70 million, and 2010, N17.6 billion.

Other releases, according to the Budget Office, are N13.6 billion in 2011, and N8.5 billion in 2012.

Chairman of the Committee, Adeola-Olamilekan, noted that the OHSF documents only referred to the N17.6 billion it received in 2010.

He said based on the figures given by the Budget Office, there was a disparity of almost N35 billion and requested for the documents for the rest of the years in question.

However, following the inability of the OHSF to satisfactorily answer the queries of the committee over Service Wide Votes disbursement, the committee chairman advised the OHSF to return to its archives and, if necessary, reconcile its records with the Budget Office and return on March 27, 2014, to the committee with evidence.