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 was said to have made the clarification in a statement issued after he appeared before members of the House of Representatives in Abuja.
He said the PEAC was inaugurated by Buhari on October 9, 2019 and that by the time preparations for the 2026 budget began, 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.
He said, “PEAC/PFIPC did not get into the 2026 Budget just because it asked for money. The Council is an offshoot of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council that was launched in the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari on October 9, 2019. When the preparation of the 2026 Budget began, the institutions responsible for this function had already issued the official instruments.
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The PFIPC was assigned an administrative code by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had approved an approved establishment and a recruitment waiver. There was also 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 approve its formation. It did not provide 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 chief stated that the council had initially sent a personnel estimate of ₦3.85 billion for the 2026 fiscal year.
He said the office rejected that figure and calculated the personnel requirement independently, based on the approved public-service salary framework, recruitment waiver and the authorised staffing structure.
He said the exercise brought down the proposed personnel cost to ₦802.98 million.
“Council later submitted personnel estimate of N3,850,935,000.00. The Budget Office’s recommendation was not based on that estimate. The Budget Office ignored it and made its own calculation, using only the authorised establishment, the approved recruitment waiver, the applicable public-service salary structure and the existing costing methodology.
“The calculation came out at ₦802,978,783.00. This was no concession to the Council. It was the fiscal judgment of the Budget Office itself. It was the amount contained in the Executive Budget proposal and subsequently appropriated,” Yakubu said.
According to Yakubu, the body could not access the personnel allocation because the promoter, Adeyemi Adeniyi, did not get the required Financial Clearance.
Such clearance was necessary before recruitment, payroll enrolment or salary payments could start, he explained.
“Financial Clearance is the point at which a personnel provision can begin to acquire 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 stays in the budget until it is issued. It does not generate staff. It does not open payroll. It does not produce wage. The Budget Office didn’t issue a Financial Clearance for PEAC/PFIPC because the conditions were incomplete,” 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 after assent, another condition was still yet to be cleared 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 calculate the cost. It could not open the gate. So there was no Financial Clearance. No legal recruitment. There was no registration on the payroll. There was no salary,” 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 sometimes been described as if the Council could have got the whole of the amount and spent it as they pleased. That description is not true,” he said.
Yakubu said Personnel appropriations are usually paid monthly to verified employees through the Federal Government payroll system and not transferred wholesale to an agency.
“The institution does not get the annual personnel provision as cash under its control, 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 over twelve months to individual workers.
“That process never started. Financial Clearance was not released. There were no recruitments. No payroll record was generated. No salary fell due. Not one kobo of the personnel provision could have been lawfully paid. No kobo was spent. “There is no personnel expenditure to recover because there was no personnel expenditure.”