The House of Representatives has resolved to probe the activities of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) over failure to submit its audited Accounts to the Auditor-General of the Federation from 2014 to date.
The House Committee on Public Accounts made this resolution Thursday when NIMASA Director-General, Dakuku Peterside, appeared for the ongoing investigation of the alleged deliberate and reckless refusal by non -Treasury Funded MDAs to render audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The Committee had on Monday ordered Peterside to appear before it within 48hours over the failure of the Agency to submit its audit accounts in the last six years, failing which a bench warrant of arrest would be issued against him.
It described the explanations of a Director who represented the Director-General that the audited report for the period under review was ready but that it had not been approved by the Board of the Agency as unacceptable and afterthought.
Also, when the Peterside appeared before the Committee on Thursday, he maintained that the reports in question were yet to be approved and signed by the Board of the Agency.
He told the Committee that he met accumulated unaudited Accounts of the Agency when he resumed as the D-G and has started clearing the backlogs of unaudited accounts for accountability.
The Chairman of the Committee, Oluwole Oke, stated that the submission of the D-G means audited Accounts of the Agency was submitted before the Auditor General of the Federation as required by the law.
The Committee frowned at the submission of Peterside who they said as a former member of the National Assembly ought to be a shining example to other Agencies by rendering financial Accounts of his Agency on time.
The Committee, therefore, resolved to probe the Agency and placed it on status inquiry for comprehensive auditing to ascertain its financial status.
The Committee also grilled the Vice Chancellors of several Federal Universities on their financial Accounts from 2014 to date and their remittances to the Auditor General of the Federation.
These institutions include the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta; Federal University of Technology, Owerri; University of Jos; University of Ilorin; University of Ibadan; University of Benin, and the Federal University of Lokoj.
The Committee resolved to place some of the Universities on status inquiry following some irregularities discovered in the documents submitted before it.
