By BONIFACE AKARAH

The Budget Office of the Federation this Friday afternoon, July 24, 2026, broke its silence on the raging controversy over claims that funds were appropriated for the fake federal agency, the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PEAC/PFIPC).

It insisted that no funds were released or spent on the agency whose Director-General, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, is currently in detention and undergoing interrogation. The Office in a statement signed by its Director-General, Prof. Tanimu Yakubu, declared that statutory expenditure controls prevented any part of the allocation from being accessed by the alleged fake agency.

According to the statement, public debate had wrongly assumed that an appropriation automatically translates into expenditure. It explained that an appropriation only provides legal authority for a proposed expenditure and does not amount to a cash release. The Budget Office added that, in the case of PEAC/PFIPC, "nothing did" after the appropriation because the statutory chain required for releasing public funds was never activated.

"An appropriation is authority in law to make provision for an expenditure. It is not a cheque. It is not a warrant. It is not cash released from the Treasury," the statement said.

The office explained that responsibility for public expenditure is shared among several government institutions, including the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, the Budget Office, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and procurement authorities, noting that no single agency can independently move an appropriation into actual expenditure.

On the personnel component, the Budget Office said it rejected the council's request of N3.85 billion and independently computed the personnel cost at N802.98 million based on the approved establishment, recruitment waiver and existing public service salary structure.

"Financial Clearance is the gate through which a personnel provision must pass before recruitment and salary expenditure can begin," the statement noted, explaining that no Financial Clearance was issued because the required regulatory conditions were not met. It added that the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had yet to confirm compliance with the approved remuneration framework after the 2026 Appropriation Act received presidential assent.

The Budget Office said the absence of Financial Clearance meant there was no lawful recruitment, no payroll enrolment and no salary payments under the PEAC/PFIPC appropriation.

Regarding the N200 million overhead provision, the office said overhead allocations are released monthly only after the issuance of warrants and Treasury cash backing. It disclosed that when questions later emerged over the legal status of the council, it formally directed the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to withhold all payment instruments relating to the council.

"The overhead provision never became a cash entitlement," the statement maintained.

The office also said the N300 million capital provision never progressed to the procurement stage because no procurement plan, Ministerial Tenders Board approval, Bureau of Public Procurement clearance, warrant or Treasury cash backing was completed.

Summing up its position, the Budget Office said each component of the appropriation was halted by different statutory safeguards before any money could be released, insisting that the controls worked exactly as designed.

"Not one kobo of the personnel provision could lawfully have been drawn, and not one kobo was drawn," the statement said, adding that there was no personnel expenditure to recover because no expenditure ever occurred.

The Budget Office said it would continue to cooperate with any lawful inquiry by providing records, computations, correspondence and other relevant documents needed to establish the facts surrounding the PEAC/PFIPC appropriation.