The Budget Office of the Federation has explained how the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) recently disowned by the Presidency and now being investigated by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) got a budgetary allocation in 2026.
Tanimu Yakubu, Director-General, Budget Office, said the body had its institutional origin in the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) established under the administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Yakubu made the clarification in a statement issued after he appeared before members of the House of Representatives in Abuja .
He said Buhari inaugurated the PEAC on October 9, 2019, and by the time preparations for the 2026 budget were underway, official instruments relating to the body had already been issued by relevant government institutions.
“The Budget Office only acted on documents submitted by other authorized government institutions,” Yakubu said.
“PEAC/PFIPC did not get into the 2026 Budget simply because it asked for money,” he said. The Council is a spinoff from the Presidential Economic Advisory Council which was inaugurated on October 9, 2019 during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari. By the time the preparation of the 2026 Budget had begun the official instruments had already been issued by the institutions responsible for this function.
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation assigned an administrative code to the PFIPC. The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had approved an establishment and recruitment waiver. There was, too, the relevant public-service salary structure. The instruments did not come from the Budget Office. They came upon it.
“The Council was not created by the Budget Office. It did not release its code. It did not like the formation of it. It did not give its recruitment waiver. It was given official instruments and did what the law required of it: it measured their fiscal impact.”
Personnel Request Slashed From ₦3.85 Billion To ₦802.9 Million
The Budget Office boss said the council had initially sent a personnel estimate of ₦3.85 billion for the 2026 fiscal year.
The office challenged that figure, he said, and arrived at the personnel requirement independently, using the approved public-service salary framework, recruitment waiver and approved staffing structure.
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The exercise, he said, brought down the proposed personnel cost to ₦802.98 million.
“Council later submitted personnel estimate of N3,850,935,000.00. The estimate was not the basis of the recommendation from the Budget Office. The Budget Office ignored this and did its own calculation based only on the authorized establishment, the approved recruitment waiver, the applicable public-service salary structure and the existing costing methodology.
The computation was ₦802,978,783.00. This was no concession to the Council. That was the fiscal judgment of the Budget Office itself. It was the amount contained in the Executive Budget proposal and thereafter appropriated,” Yakubu said.
Yakubu stated that the body was unable to access the personnel allocation as the promoter, Adeyemi Adeniyi, did not obtain the required Financial Clearance.
Such clearance was required before recruitment, enrolment for payroll or salary payments could begin, he said.
“Financial Clearance is the point at which a personnel provision can begin to take on legal force as expenditure. It is not a regular letter. It is the confirmation that the conditions fiscal and regulatory for recruitment have been met. It’s in the budget until it is issued. It does not generate staff. It does not open payroll. It doesn’t generate wage. “The Budget Office did not release a Financial Clearance for PEAC/PFIPC because the conditions were not complete,” he said.
Yakubu said that the 2026 Appropriation Bill only became law upon presidential assent on March 31, 2026, meaning that the final financial clearance could not have been issued before then.
He said another condition was still to be cleared after assent as the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had not confirmed that the proposed staffing and remuneration structure was in line with the approved public-service structure.
The Budget Office could estimate the cost. It could not open the gate. So there was no Financial Clearance. No legal recruitment. There was no enrollment on the payroll. There was no money,” he added.
The Director-General, Budget Office, said the provision for personnel of ₦802.98 million represented 61.63 percent of the council’s total appropriation of ₦1.303 billion.
He rejected suggestions that the whole personnel allocation could have been handed over directly to the body as a lump sum.
‘The personnel provision was N802,978,783.00. It accounted for 61.63 per cent of the total appropriation of ₦1,302,978,783.00. It has been put sometimes as if the whole of the sum could have been got by the Council and spent as they pleased. “That description is not correct,” he said.
Personnel appropriations are normally paid monthly to verified employees through the Federal Government payroll system and are not transferred wholesale to an agency, Yakubu said.
“The institution does not get the annual personnel provision as cash at its disposal,” he added. The Council would not have received ₦802,978,783.00 in one installment in a lawful process. The money would have been spread out over twelve months to individual employees.
“That process never started. Financial Clearance was not released. There were no recruitments. No payroll record was generated. No salary was payable. Not one kobo of the personnel provision could have been lawfully paid. Not a kobo was spent. “There is no personnel expenditure to recover because there was no personnel expenditure.”
