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ABUJA – The Budget Office of the Federation has insisted that no part of the ₦1.303 billion appropriated for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PEAC/PFIPC) was released or spent, arguing that Nigeria’s public finance control system prevented the funds from becoming public expenditure.
In a statement issued on Friday, Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, said public concern over the appropriation should distinguish between legislative approval and actual expenditure, stressing that an appropriation does not automatically translate into the release or spending of public funds.
According to him, while the National Assembly appropriated funds for the council, the statutory conditions required before government money could be spent were never fulfilled.
“The issue was never merely whether Parliament had appropriated funds. It was whether the law permitted those funds to become expenditure,” Yakubu said.
He explained that before any appropriated funds could be spent, a series of statutory processes must be completed, including Financial Clearance, lawful recruitment, payroll enrolment, Treasury warranting, cash backing and, where applicable, procurement approvals.
He maintained that none of these conditions was satisfied in the case of PEAC/PFIPC.
“The appropriation therefore remained an appropriation. It never became expenditure,” he stated.
Yakubu said the Budget Office only assessed the fiscal implications of official instruments received from relevant government agencies, noting that the office neither created the council nor approved its establishment.
He disclosed that although the council submitted a personnel estimate of about ₦3.85 billion, the Budget Office rejected the proposal and independently computed a personnel requirement of ₦802.98 million based on the approved establishment, recruitment waiver and existing public service salary structure.
That figure, he said, was subsequently included in the Executive Budget proposal and later appropriated by the National Assembly.
The Budget Office, however, said Financial Clearance—the legal requirement that allows personnel provisions to become expenditure—was never granted because the necessary conditions remained outstanding.
Yakubu explained that the 2026 Appropriation Bill only became law after presidential assent on March 31, 2026, while the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had yet to confirm compliance of the proposed staffing and remuneration structure with approved public service standards.
“There was therefore no Financial Clearance. There was no lawful recruitment. There was no payroll enrolment. There was no salary payment,” he said.
On the personnel allocation, Yakubu clarified that the ₦802.98 million provision was never meant to be paid directly to the council as a lump sum.
Rather, he said personnel appropriations are disbursed monthly as salaries directly to verified employees enrolled on the Federal Government payroll.
He added that since recruitment never took place and no payroll records were created, “not one kobo” of the personnel provision could legally be drawn.
The Director-General also addressed the council’s ₦200 million overhead allocation, explaining that overhead releases depend on Treasury warrants and cash backing issued monthly.
He disclosed that after questions emerged in June over the legal status of the council, the Budget Office formally requested the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to suspend all payment instruments relating to the appropriation.
According to him, that action effectively prevented any release of overhead funds.
Similarly, Yakubu said the ₦300 million capital provision never progressed to the procurement stage required under the Public Procurement Act.
He noted that no procurement plan was approved, no Ministerial Tenders Board processed any transaction, no Certificate of No Objection was issued by the Bureau of Public Procurement, and no Treasury warrant or cash backing followed.
“The capital provision remained where Parliament had placed it—in the Appropriation Act, subject to law. It never became capital expenditure,” he said.
Yakubu argued that the PEAC/PFIPC case demonstrated the effectiveness of Nigeria’s expenditure control framework, saying the safeguards built into the public finance system prevented any loss of public funds.
“The law did not recover money after it had gone. It prevented the money from going,” he stated.
He added that the Budget Office would continue to cooperate with any lawful investigation into the matter by providing relevant records, computations, official correspondence and other documentary evidence to establish the facts.
