No public fund was spent on PEAC/PFIPC despite NASS

Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC)

The Budget Office of the Federation has defended the inclusion of funds for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PEAC/PFIPC) in the 2026 Appropriation Act.

In a statement yesterday, the Office insisted that not a single kobo of the ₦1.3 billion allocation was ever spent because statutory financial controls blocked the release of the funds.

The Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, in the statement argued that public debate had wrongly assumed that an appropriation automatically translates into government spending.

According to him, the National Assembly‘s approval of funds merely authorises potential expenditure, while actual spending can only occur after several legal and administrative conditions have been satisfied.

“The issue was never whether Parliament appropriated funds. The issue was whether the law permitted those funds to become expenditure,” Yakubu said.

He explained that the expenditure process requires a series of approvals, including Financial Clearance, lawful recruitment, payroll enrolment, Treasury warranting, cash backing and procurement approvals for capital projects.

“None of those conditions arose in the case of PEAC/PFIPC. The appropriation therefore remained an appropriation. It never became expenditure,” he stated.

Yakubu disclosed that although the council submitted a personnel budget estimate of ₦3.85 billion, the Budget Office rejected the proposal and independently calculated personnel costs at ₦802.98 million using the approved establishment, recruitment waiver and existing public service salary structure.

He stressed that the lower figure reflected the Budget Office’s own fiscal assessment rather than the council’s request.

The Director-General further explained that Financial Clearance—the approval required before recruitment and salary payments can commence—was never granted because the necessary legal and regulatory conditions were not fulfilled.

He noted that while the 2026 Appropriation Bill only became law after presidential assent on March 31, 2026, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had yet to validate the proposed staffing and remuneration structure.

“There was therefore no Financial Clearance. There was no lawful recruitment. There was no payroll enrolment. There was no salary payment,” he said.

Yakubu also dismissed suggestions that the council could have accessed the ₦802.98 million personnel allocation directly, explaining that personnel funds are never released as lump sums to government agencies but are paid monthly to verified employees through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System after all statutory approvals have been obtained.

On the ₦200 million overhead allocation, he said no releases were made because the Budget Office formally instructed the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation in June to withhold all payment instruments after questions emerged over the legal status of the council.

He added that the ₦300 million capital allocation similarly never progressed beyond the appropriation stage because no procurement process was initiated, no Ministerial Tenders Board approvals were obtained and no Certificate of No Objection was issued under the Public Procurement Act.

Yakubu maintained that the episode demonstrated the effectiveness of Nigeria’s expenditure control framework rather than a failure of public financial management.

“The law did not recover money after it had gone. It prevented the money from going,” he said.

According to him, the personnel allocation never became payroll expenditure, the overhead vote never matured into a cash release, while the capital provision never became procurement expenditure.

He said the Budget Office would continue to cooperate with all lawful investigations by providing records, calculations and official correspondence to establish that no public funds were disbursed in connection with the council.

The statement comes amid growing public scrutiny over the appropriation made for the PEAC/PFIPC and whether government funds had been committed to the body.

The Budget Office maintained that the controls built into Nigeria’s public finance system ensured that the appropriated funds remained unspent because all statutory conditions for expenditure were never satisfied.