The House of Representatives has summoned four Ministers to appear before its Committee on Public Account to explain why agencies under them should not be sanctioned for violating extant laws on submission of audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The House is investigating the: “deliberate and reckless refusal by non treasury and partially funded agencies to render their audited accounts covering the period from 2014 to 2018”.
The Ministers summoned are that of Health, Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Agriculture, Sabo Nanono, Minister of Trade and Investment, Otunba Adebayo and Minister of State for Transportation, Gbemisola Saraki.
Saraki is to appear along aide the Permanent Secretary in her Ministry over the refusal of the Director General of the Nigeria Maritime and Safety Administration (NIMASA) to appear before the Committee to explain why it has failed to submit the audited report since 2014 to the Auditor General.
On the other hand, the Minister of Agriculture is to appear along side all agencies in the Ministry to explain the delay in constituting boards for the agencies which many them said was responsible for the non submission of their audited accounts.
The Committee Chairman, Wole Oke said the Management of NIMASA has refused to make an appearance before the Committee, while also frowning at the failure of the Federal Inland Revenue Service to submit up to date audited accounts to the appropriate quarters.
The House also placed the Nigeria Institute for International Affairs, Lagos, Nigeria Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, the Nigeria investment Promotion Council, Radiographers Registration Board, Inter-Country Centre for Oral Health, Root Crop Research Institute, Umudike, Nigeria Natural Medicine Agency and the Lake Chad Research institute under status enquiry.
The agencies are to reappear before the Committee with their immediate past Management Team, the annual budget and their audited accounts, covering the period under investigation.
The Committee Chairman said the Management of NIMASA has refused to make an appearance before the Committee and frowned at the failure of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to submit up to date audited accounts to the appropriate quarters.
Oke frowned at the refusal of the agencies to abide by the provisions of the law, saying it was not acceptable that for eight years, the Nigeria Institute for International Affairs failed to submit its audited account as required by law.
The agency, according to the Office of the Auditor General last submitted its audited accounts in 2010, a situation, the Chairman said was very embarrassing, saying, “you are the gateway to Nigeria. When you go out there what do you tell your colleagues. For an agency like this, it is very embarrassing.”
Director General of the Inter-Country for Oral Health on its part last told the Committee that it could not submit its audited report because of the absence of a board to approve the audited reports since the last one was submitted in 2006.
He said since the board was yet to be constituted, all the audited report are submitted to the Minister for approval.
However, the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council disagreed with the Office of the Auditor General on the submission of its audited reports, saying it has evidence that all reports up to 2017 have been submitted, but returned by the Auditor General.
Director General of the agency, Yewande Sadiku told the Committee that when she assumed office in 2016, she discovered that the agency had not been audited since 2013 and immediately set in motion machineries to carry out the audit which she said took a while to complete.
She explained that the audited report was submitted via a letter dated September 2019, but was returned by the Auditor General who demanded that a soft copy of the report must accompany the submission.
The Committee was however not impressed by fact that the reports were submitted late and demanded that all former Chief Executives of the agency should appear along side the Supervising Minister.
Oke warned the Management of NIMASA led by a former Member of the House, Dakuku Peterside to stop undermining the House, saying this will be the last time the House will be inviting them to appear, failure of which, the Committee will be forced to recommend appropriate sanctions against them.
He said when agencies of government fail to appear before the constitutional Committee, it means that they have something to hide and such agency will face the appropriate sanction.
Oke however, commended the Management of Galaxy backbone for being the only agency that was up to date in submitting its audited account to the Auditor General’s office.
“Even though we are yet to go through the report, the fact that they are up to date with their report is commendable. We cannot continue to run the nation like this. We have seen people going to jail for just N100,000. So, we wont allow this to continue”, he said.
James Kwen, Abuja
