Budget Office: No PFIPC funds released despite appropriation

The Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, has said no funds appropriated for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PEAC/PFIPC) were released or spent, insisting that Nigeria’s public finance controls prevented any expenditure.

In a statement issued on Friday titled “The Money That Never Moved: How Nigeria’s Expenditure Controls Prevented the PEAC/PFIPC Appropriation from Becoming Public Expenditure,” Yakubu said although the National Assembly appropriated funds for the council, the expenditure process never progressed beyond the appropriation stage.

He explained that an appropriation only authorises spending in law and does not amount to a cash release, noting that several statutory approvals must be secured before public funds can be disbursed.

According to him, the Budget Office neither created the council nor approved its establishment, recruitment or remuneration. He said the office only assessed the fiscal implications of documents issued by other government agencies and independently determined the personnel budget.

Yakubu disclosed that while the council requested ₦3.85bn for personnel costs, the Budget Office reduced the figure to ₦802.98m after applying the approved public service salary structure and personnel costing methodology.

He said the Budget Office never issued the mandatory Financial Clearance required for recruitment because the necessary regulatory conditions had not been met.

According to him, the 2026 Appropriation Bill only became law after presidential assent on March 31, 2026, while confirmation from the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission on staffing and remuneration was still outstanding.

“As a result, there was no Financial Clearance, no lawful recruitment, no payroll enrolment and no salary payment,” he said.

Yakubu added that the ₦802.98m personnel allocation, which represented over 61 per cent of the council’s appropriation, never became payroll expenditure because no staff were employed or enrolled on the Federal Government payroll.

He also said the ₦200m overhead allocation never became a cash entitlement, revealing that the Budget Office directed the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation in June 2026 to withhold all payment instruments after concerns emerged over the council’s legal status.

On the ₦300m capital allocation, the Budget Office boss said none of the statutory procurement processes required under the Public Procurement Act was completed, meaning no procurement, warrant, cash backing or expenditure took place.

Yakubu maintained that the country’s expenditure control mechanisms worked as intended, preventing any public funds from being released.

He stressed that each component of the appropriation was halted at different stages of the expenditure chain, with personnel stopped at Financial Clearance, overhead blocked before warranting and cash backing, and capital halted before procurement approval.

“The money never moved because the controls held,” Yakubu said.

He added that there was no personnel expenditure to recover because no funds were ever disbursed and pledged the Budget Office’s cooperation with all lawful investigations into the matter.

The statement comes amid public scrutiny over the appropriation for the PEAC/PFIPC and allegations surrounding the council’s legal status and funding.