Abuja, Dec. 9, 2022 – The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has indicted some federal government agencies for their failure to remit their audited accounts in the last eight years.
Prominent among the agencies indicted by the committee, Chaired by Oluwole Oke, which submitted it reports to the House on Thursday are the CBN, NNPC, NDDC and RMAF.
In the report, the committee recommended the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission prosecution, warrant of arrest issuance against chief accounting officers and sanctioning of various MDAs.
The committee urged the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the Accountant General of the Federation, and Auditor-General for the Federation to jointly issue a government circular specifying strong sanctions against agencies that violated Financial Regulation 3010 for the 2019 -2021 financial years.
The committee also said that “many agencies often violate the Appropriation Act by deliberately subjecting their internally generated revenue to some committees (of the National Assembly) directly overseeing them for approval and expend same illegally without Mr. President’s assent.”
In its findings in the first batch of investigations covering 2014 to 2018, the committee said some MDAs complained that the procurement process of hiring their external auditors was cumbersome, which was the reason for operating during these periods without being audited.
The committee said it also discovered gross negligence by directors of finance and accounts/bursars in some MDAs in ensuring the accounts were audited duly, including delay in the appointment of governing councils/boards and in approving/signing audited accounts by the governing councils/boards.
According to the committee, some incumbent chief accounting officers refused to sign audited accounts prepared by former CEOs, while some MDAs submitted unsigned accounts. Also, some letters evidencing remittance of audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation had either faint or no acknowledgement of receipt stamp.
The committee, therefore, recommended, among others, that all MDAs should be directed to submit their audited accounts on or before May 31 every year. (GBN)