COVID-19: No Cash Donations In Our Custody – FG Task Force
BY COBHAM NSA, ABUJA – With news of humongous cash and materials donations to battle the raging global pandemic hitting the airwaves daily, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak says contrary to public opinion, it does not have access to the said funds and items.
Dismissing speculations that the Task Force is warehousing everything in its custody, the PTF said it has no control over the multi-billion Naira contributions so far announced by various donors towards fighting the pandemic.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Task Force team, Mr Boss Mustapha, stated this at the daily routine briefing in Abuja to update Nigerians on the operations of his team as well as the funds administration and management measures adopted in their sensitization and intervention campaign efforts.
Noting that at the moment, they have only received materials donated recently by the founder of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma of China, Mustapha said; “Let me inform the nation that so far the Presidential Task Force has not received any donation directly, in terms of cash for this exercise.”
According to him, there are currently four fronts through which government, organisations, individuals and bodies had rallied and pulled resources together to fight to COVID-19 in Nigeria, insisting that only one of these fronts has direct linkage to the PTF’s operations
The SGF listed the fronts as the one jointly coordinated by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele and Alhaji Aliko Dangote; the front being coordinated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other interests within the nation’s oil and gas sector; as well as the third coordinated by the United Nations (UN) family.
He explained that the three fronts have independent governance structures for the management of the resources, both financial and materials, generated within their loops.
Mustapha also said that these structures have internal funds management systems and auditing mechanisms which the Federal government does not not have any control over.
On the fourth front which is solely Federal Government’s initiative, the PTF Chairman said an account has been created for the operations and related actions under the strict supervision of the Task Force, adding that funds have not yet been released into the account, which was only created on Wednesday, April 1, 2020.
Maintaining that “this is the only front where government has its control”, the SGF however acknowledged that: “We have received materials, particularly the one from Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire and that has adequately been distributed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Mustapha, who expressed government’s appreciation of all organisations and individuals efforts geared towards ending the COVID-19 pandemic, said government is fully ready to commit resources into funding the Coronavirus engagement.
“I have just received a letter from the Accountant-General, informing us of the account that has just been opened yesterday (Wednesday). So, obviously no fund has gone into any account.
“Hopefully, in the coming days, we will receive funding for the work of Presidential Task Force (PTF) in terms of the different components of the multilateral or multi-sectoral engagements.
“That is the one government will have control over and at the end of the enterprise, we will account for it”, he assured
