The Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) has been in existence since the administration of late Muhammadu Buhari.
This is according to the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF), Mr. Tanimu Yakubu.
The latter declared this on Friday in a statement, after appearing before a panel of the House of Representatives designed to probe the unlawful conduct and culpability of current and former government officials and private individuals in the illegal agency.
Yakubu traced PFIPC’s origin to Presidential Economic Advisory Council under Buhari inaugurated on October 9, 2019 by the then President.
He disclosed that the fake agency was allocated money in the 2026 budget, saying, “PEAC/PFIPC did not enter the 2026 Budget merely because it asked for funds. The Council had its origin in the Presidential Economic Advisory Council inaugurated during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari on October 9, 2019.
“By the time preparation of the 2026 Budget began, official instruments had already been issued by the institutions charged with those functions.
“The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation had assigned an administrative code to the PFIPC. The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had approved an authorised establishment and a recruitment waiver. The applicable public-service salary structure also existed. These instruments did not come from the Budget Office. They came to it.
“The Budget Office did not create the Council. It did not assign its code. It did not approve its establishment. It did not grant its recruitment waiver. It received official instruments and did what the law required of it: it measured their fiscal effect.”
The DG further explained that the Council submitted a personnel estimate of N3.850 billion for the 2026 Fiscal Year and that his Office had to reduce that figure to N802.978 million, using the authorised establishment, the approved recruitment waiver, the applicable public-service salary structure and the extant costing methodology.
According to him, “Council later submitted a personnel estimate of N3,850,935,000.00. That estimate did not form the basis of the Budget Office’s recommendation. The Budget Office disregarded it and made an independent calculation using only the authorised establishment, the approved recruitment waiver, the applicable public-service salary structure and the extant costing methodology.
“That calculation produced N802,978,783.00. This was not a concession to the Council. It was the Budget Office’s own fiscal judgment. It was the amount placed in the Executive Budget proposal and later appropriated.”
He added that the Council could not receive the approved funds for personnel because its promoter, Prince Adeyemi Adeniyi could not secure Financial Clearance, an instrument that confirms that necessary fiscal and regulatory had been met.
