The House of Representatives on Monday put the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), the Tertiary Education Trust Funds (TETFUND) and the National Drug Laws Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on status enquiry over failure to submit audited account to the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation from 2014 till date.
This followed the resolution of the House Committee on Public Accounts at the investigative hearing on refusal of Non-Treasury Funded and Partially Funded Agencies to Render their Audited Accounts covering the period 2014-2018 to the Auditor-General of the Federation.
Chairman of the Committee, Wole Oke said the decision became necessary as it has been established that the institutions contravened the law and as such, the status enquiry would enable the Committee probe and uncover the irregularities in their accounts.
The Committee which frowned at the late submission of the 2014 audited account of JAMB to the Auditor General after two years, added that the audited account submitted for 2014 which was submitted in 2016 was signed by the new Registrar which was not supposed to be so.
“We will place JAMB on status enquiry, they should furnish this house in writing why their accounts were submitted late
Why should the current registrar sign for the former Registrar, they should defend that and they should furnish the procurement records of the external Auditor “, Oke declared.
The Committee also grilled TETFUND and NDLEA over alleged similar infractions and placed them on status enquiry.
However, TETFUND Executive Secretary, Suleiman Bogoro defended the Agency that is was one the Agencies of the Federal Government that has an up to date records and its management under his watch has nothing to hide.
Meanwhile, the Committee summoned the Director General of the Bureau of Public Procumbent (BPP) and the Accountant General of the Federation to appear before it and explain their roles which led to unaudited accounts of the Nigerian Customs Service.
This was sequel to the appearance of Comptroller General of Nigerian Customs Service, Hameed Ali before the Committee during the investigative hearing.
In his presentation, Ali who was represented by a Customs Officer, Sadiq Ibrahim informed the Committee that the delay was caused by BPP which gave so many terms and rejected the Service submission.
“You could recall at our first meeting with you Mr Chairman, we told you of our problems that lead to customs not having the audited accounts from 2014 till date which you directed us to give you evidence of the submission. Now we have the audited financial statements which we submitted.
“Even when the Committee didn’t ask us to submit 2013, when we went to the Auditor General we were asked to submit 2013 which we did. We have been having this problem of BPP. The BPP is giving so many terms and rejection of our own submission,” he said
In his response, the Committee Chairman ordered customs to furnish to the Committee with the correspondence between it and BPP on the engagement of auditors so as to properly situate the problem.
“I recall that you told the Committee that you are yet to submit your account from 2013 till date. But the wrong doer has come out to say sorry, but the painful aspect of it is that we are all relying on you, you are the pillar based on which the public finance is undertaken”, Oke informed.
