₦1.3bn approved for PEAC/PFIPC never left government coffers – Budget Office
By Kunle Sanni
The Budget Office of the Federation has insisted that not a single kobo of the ₦1.302 billion appropriated for the controversial Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PEAC/PFIPC) was released or spent, arguing that Nigeria’s expenditure control system prevented the appropriation from becoming public expenditure.
In a detailed statement issued on Friday, Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, said public debate had wrongly assumed that parliamentary appropriation automatically translated into government spending.
He stressed that although the National Assembly appropriated funds for the council, the legal and administrative conditions required to access the money were never fulfilled.
“The conclusion is firm. Not one kobo of the personnel provision could lawfully have been drawn, and not one kobo was drawn. The overhead provision never matured into a lawful cash release. The capital provision never matured into procurement or expenditure,” Yakubu said.
The Budget Office explained that appropriation merely authorises potential expenditure and does not amount to a cash release.
According to Yakubu, government spending can only occur after multiple institutions complete separate approval processes, including recruitment clearance, salary approval, treasury warrants, cash backing and procurement authorisations.
He disclosed that the Budget Office independently reduced the council’s proposed personnel budget from ₦3.85 billion to ₦802.98 million based on approved staffing levels and existing salary structures before it was included in the 2026 budget.
However, he said the office never issued the mandatory Financial Clearance required for recruitment because key regulatory conditions remained unmet.
“There was no Financial Clearance. There was no lawful recruitment. There was no payroll enrolment. There was no salary payment,” he stated.
