Budget Office Blows Lid Off N1.32bn Fake Presidential Agency, Proving No Public Money Was Stolen

In a major breakthrough for the ongoing parliamentary inquiry into the fake Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), the Budget Office of the Federation has reassured Nigerians that not a single naira of public funds was lost to the bogus entity.

Testifying before the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating how the fictitious agency infiltrated government records, the Director-General of the Budget Office, Tanimu Yakubu, clarified that while N1.302 billion was indeed appropriated for the council in the 2026 national budget, strict institutional safeguards prevented any money from leaving the treasury.

Yakubu explained to lawmakers that inclusion in the national budget is merely a legal framework for potential spending—not a blank check or an automatic cash release. Because the promoters of the phantom council could not produce required statutory documents, such as salary scale certifications from the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission or valid procurement certificates, the Budget Office froze all payment channels.

The inquiry also revealed that the promoters behind the fake council had originally tried to secure an astronomical N3.85 billion just for staff salaries and personnel expenses. However, internal budget analysts rejected the massive claim and slashed the personnel proposal down to N802 million before the final N1.302 billion overall allocation was presented to lawmakers.

“The conclusion is firm. Not one kobo of the personnel provision could lawfully have been drawn, and not one kobo was drawn,” Budget Office Director-General Tanimu Yakubu stated firmly before the House committee. “An appropriation is an authority in law to make provision for expenditure; it is not a cheque or a cash release. The overhead and capital provisions never matured into expenditure because the mandatory conditions were not met. The money never moved because our financial controls held.”

Addressing how the unapproved council secured a budget line in the first place, Yakubu explained that the request passed through official civil service channels using historical administrative codes linked to the former Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) set up during the previous administration.

Responding to the testimony, the Chairman of the House Ad-hoc Committee, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi, acknowledged that while the administrative system failed to catch the forged documents at the entry stage, the nation’s financial safeguards successfully stopped the syndicate from walking away with public funds. Lawmakers pledged to continue the inquiry to unmask every internal collaborator involved in introducing the fraudulent paperwork into official government records.