By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja
The House of Representatives Committee on Finance yesterday, queried the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Idris Ahmed, over discrepancies in the dollar exchange rate paid as allowances to his staff attached to foreign missions. Chairman of the Committee, James Faleke, frowned that the staff were paid at the rate of $425 instead of the official rate of $410.

 Explanations by the Accountant General that they were transfer costs by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) could not convince the Committee, forcing it to summoned the apex bank for further explainations.  Idris said the Ministry had taken up the additional responsibility of paying the foreign attachés which explained the jump from N3 billion budget for personnel cost in 2021 to N9 billion in 2022. He said the responsibility before now was that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Idris explained, “Personnel cost increased by more than 100 percent from our previous approved budget for 2021. Our approved budget for personnel cost in 2021 was N3.711 billion and it now moved to N9.088 billion. I had explained that we have as an office, additional responsibility to pay salaries and allowances of foreign personnel particularly the finance attachés which are now responsibilities of our office in terms of costing, in terms of assignment of responsibility and schedule of duty. “The same way immigration officers in foreign missions are being taken care of by the Nigerian Immigration Service. The same way other military attaches are being taken of by their respective agencies, so our office by virtue of an administrative circular, which emanated from the Presidency as a result of a request by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we are not responsible for payment of salaries and allowances and estacodes of all the finance attaches assigned to Nigerian missions abroad. That amount was taken away from the budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and assigned to us. This is largely what is responsible for the sharp increase of over 100 percent.” Faleke queried, “You have been given additional responsibility for foreign attachés  That responsibility was, according to you, of course performed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before now. And now, it is your responsibility. I would take you to appendix B, where you put the names and the allowances. My concern is that yes you are paying the allowances in dollars. My concern is your exchange rate. You have out $425 to a naira. Mr President’s presentation is $410. Are you aware of that? That this, of course, does not fall in line with the presentation of Mr President to this National Assembly. So are you proposing an increase of the exchange rate to 425?” Idris responded, “The exchange rate issue is slightly higher because despite all these we say, we still encounter certain charges by CBN itself. They are charged by CBN. We cannot run away from that and it is obvious. Our records are there. We can verify these. Yes, the exchange rate is pegged at this, but CBN one way or the other, you have to pay a bit higher. Yes, lower than the black market rate and that is why we jacked it up slightly. We know that this is what is being approved, as…” Faleke interrupted him, “Accountant General, your statement is very pregnant. If the law says 410 naira to a dollar, there is no reason for you or your agency to pay anybody higher than that on an official assignment. And the CBN cannot flout the law of the land. Appropriation is a law. I think you need to get further clarifications on that.” Idris then continued, “Honestly let me be more clearer. Getting the funds right at official agreed exchange rate, but transmitting the funds and associated cost of such transmittal, including some of the cost, so called, I don’t know, CBN incurs as the receiving bank, or the corresponding bank, these are the elements that really account for some of these higher charges. They can be explained. They are real. In all honesty…anyway let me not go into too much of these. But that is it. There are some costs associated with transmitting the funds. Cost of transfer, which is different from the exchange rate at which you get your dollar.” Faleke then responded, “I still don’t…I don’t want to bug you, but it would be difficult to defend. Very difficult to defend. The cost of transfer will surely not be 15 naira to a dollar because what we are asking now is the difference of N15 to the 410. That is, 425 to 410. No bank would charge such an amount, 15 naira to a dollar.  “Your transfer is through the CBN. You are not using commercial banks, so I don’t see the reason why CBN… On this statement we would invite CBN to come and clarify. It is a very serious issue that if we are talking about controlling our inflation rate in this country and the cost of doing business or cost of governance and CBN would be charging double rate different from the actual approved rate, then that would be serious issues.” Idris then said the ministry would also be in a position to give of the cost elements, to know exactly what they represent.