The Plateau State House of Assembly has discovered about N3 billion unspent Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P, funds in the state since January 2012.

The chairman of the House ad hoc committee on the Subsidy Reinvestment and EmpowermentProgramme, Dalyop Mancha, who disclosed this to newsmen in Jos, said it discovered that both the state and local governments attracted fund from the SURE-P since January 2012, which the two tiers did not disbursed to the beneficiaries.

He said the commissioners for finance, local government and chieftaincy, the state accountant-general, state and zonal coordinators of SURE-P and the director-general, research and planning, Plateau Government House, had appeared before the committee over the issue.

According to the chairman, the finance commissioner told the committee that the state started receiving monthly allocation of funds from the programme in January 2012, but a special account was created for it in April 2012.

“He said the funds are intact and that the account has so far received the sum of over N3 billion arising from a monthly allocation of N218 million,” Mancha said.

The legislator also disclosed that the commissioner for local governments told the committee that funds received from the program me since April 2012 was kept in a local government SURE-P account.

He said the commissioner blamed the non commencement of the programme on late submission ofprogramme by committees’ setup in local governments for purpose.

He said the committee had recommended that the state and local governments should put in place mechanisms for the commencement of the programme to catch up with other states.