Unaudited Accounts: Representative Panel Accuses NNPC, CBN and Others

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has tabled its report on federal government departments, departments and agencies that have not returned their audited accounts within eight years.

The main people charged in the report tabled in plenary on Thursday by committee chairman Oluwole Oke are the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (now Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited), the Commission of Development of the Niger Delta, Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Tax Commission, among others.

It was titled “Report of the Public Accounts Committee on the willful and reckless refusal of government ministries, departments and agencies to report audited accounts for the periods 2014-2018 and 2019-2021 to the Auditor General for the Federation and approve the recommendations contained therein.'

In the report, the committee recommended prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the issuance of an arrest warrant against the chief accounts, and the sanctioning of various MDAs.

For the financial years between 2019 and 2021, the committee urged the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning; the Federation Accountant General and the Federation Auditor General to "jointly issue a government circular specifying severe penalties against agencies that have violated Financial Regulation 3010".

The committee also said that "many agencies often violate the Appropriation Act by deliberately submitting their internally generated revenues to certain committees (of the National Assembly) which directly monitor them for approval and spend them illegally without proper approval. assent of the President".

In its findings from the first batch of investigations covering the period from 2014 to 2018, the committee said that some MDAs complained about the cumbersome process of hiring their external auditors, which is why they operated for these periods without being audited.

The committee said it also found gross negligence on the part of finance and account managers/bursars of some MDAs in ensuring accounts are audited when due, delay in appointing board members administration/advice and delay in approval/signing of audited accounts. accounts by councils/boards of directors.

According to the committee, some incumbent accounting directors refused to sign audited accounts prepared by former CEOs, some MDAs submitting unsigned accounts to it, while some letters attesting to the delivery of audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation had a low or zero acknowledgment stamp.

The committee therefore recommended that all MDAs be required to submit their audited account by May 31 of each year; that the meeting of the Board of Directors or Board of Directors be convened to sign the audited accounts immediately after their submission by the external auditors; that in the absence of a board or board of directors, the MDA oversight body should sign off on audited accounts to avoid any delays in reporting to the Office of the Auditor General.

“No outgoing CEO should leave office without having duly completed the process of having accounts audited, signed and delivered to the Office of the Auditor General,” the committee recommended.

The report said in part: "All account managers of the 54 government agencies listed on pages 4-6 who declined to appear to defend their positions during the public fear without any written reason, including CBN, NNPC , NDDC, RMAFC, etc., should be given an arrest warrant to compel them to appear to answer the case within one week, in accordance with Article 89 (d) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”

On the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, the committee said that "the reckless and willful refusal of the management of the agency to report its audited accounts over the past five years (2005 - 2019) constitutes a breach of Section 85(3)(b) of the 1999 Constitution."

The panel added: "All current officials should be sanctioned and returned to the EFCC in accordance with Financial Regulation 3129 of 2009."

Regarding the National Social Insurance Fund, the committee said it "disapproved of the agency's worrying attitude for refusing to report its audited accounts for the past 13 years, while benefiting from the Treasury federal".

The panel therefore recommended that "all Managing Directors and DFAs as well as various external auditors from 2006 to 2019 be handed over to the EFCC in accordance with FR No. 3129 for prosecution accordingly."< /p>

The committee also recommended that all former MDs, DFAs and external auditors of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria from 2013 to 2018 who were implicated in the non-return of audited accounts be handed over to the EFCC and disciplined in accordance . .