The State House has denied authorising the establishment of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) or requesting the creation of a budget code for the purported agency.
The denial came on Thursday as the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the council uncovered fresh inconsistencies in documents allegedly used to secure government recognition for it.
Officials from the State House appeared before the committee at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja to explain their roles in the activities of the disputed council.
The panel is investigating how the PFIPC allegedly gained access to official administrative and budgetary processes despite questions over its legal status.
Representing the Permanent Secretary of the State House, the Director of Administration, Abdulkadri Idris, told lawmakers that the Presidency neither initiated nor approved the council.
He also denied that the State House wrote to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) requesting a budget code for the organisation.
“I want to state that we did not send any correspondence nor any request to the Office of the Accountant-General in respect of this council,” Idris said.
“We don’t even know anything about this council. We never heard about this council until we started seeing it in the media.”
He added that the State House lacked the statutory authority to create government agencies.
Idris dismissed as fraudulent documents presented to the committee which purportedly originated from the State House.
One of the documents was allegedly signed by an individual identified as Akande Adewale, described as Director of Administration and Support Services.
The State House official said neither the person nor the office existed within the Presidency.
“I presented the list of Directors of Administration in the State House from 2003 to date, and there was no name resembling Akande Adewale,” he said.
“In addition, there is no department known as Directorate of Administration and Support Services in the State House. We have only the Department of Administration.
“Akande Adewale has never, ever been Director of Administration in the State House.”
The State House submitted official records, including authentic letterheads and a historical list of Directors of Administration, to support its position.
The Chairman of the committee, Yusuf Gagdi, said the testimony exposed major differences between documents obtained from the Office of the Accountant-General and records supplied by the State House.
“The State House has denied that it ever wrote any letter to the Accountant-General requesting budget codes,” Gagdi said.
“Secondly, there is no Directorate of Administration and Support Services as contained in those documents.”
He added that the Accountant-General’s Office appeared to have responded to an office which the State House said did not exist.
“The Accountant-General responded to an office that the State House says does not exist, while the name of the signatory, Akande Adewale, is absent from all official records submitted to this committee,” he said.
Gagdi described the contradictions as a significant development in the investigation.
The State House also denied issuing an appointment letter to the purported Director-General of the council, Adeniyi Adeyemi.
Idris explained that appointments of chief executives of federal agencies are political appointments formally communicated through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF).
“If the President approves any appointment, the conveyance is done by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation,” he said.
