The House of Representatives has expressed worry over five years unaudited accounts of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
The House, through its Committee on Public Accounts, at an investigative hearing on audit queries by Auditor-General of Federation to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on Thursday said the act was in gross violation of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, and other lawmakers lamented that the audit queries raised by the Office of Auditor-General of the Federation on the MDAs had shown that the revenue profile of the agencies was on the decline as earlier pointed out by the Ministry of Finance.
He expressed dissatisfaction with non-compliance of the agencies to the extant provision of the laws on audited accounts despite having made previous appearances to the committee on the contentious issue.
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The committee also uncovered that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) had not paid up their 30 percent and 20 percent equity capital as shareholders of the bank as stipulated by the FMBN Establishment Act.
But in his response, the managing director of FMBN, Ahmed Dangiwa, explained that the Federal Government had paid N60 million out of the N1.5 billion being its share of equity in the bank.
Dangiwa told the committee that the audited accounts were ready but were only awaiting the agency’s board approval.
He disclosed that the present management of the bank had inherited the five years’ unaudited accounts from its predecessors in office but has made efforts to clear the outstanding.
On the percentage equity shareholders’ capital in the mortgage bank, he said: “the Federal Government owns 50 percent, CBN owns 30 percent, while the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund’s share is 20 percent”.
While ruling on the matter, the chairman of the committee said that the clerk should write to the appropriate authorities in the CBN and NSITF asking them to pay up their equity shareholding in the mortgage institution.
Earlier, the committee had turned down the presentation of Idris Alkali who represented the executive secretary of TETFUND, Suleiman Bogoro, who asked he be excused for attending official duties.
The House committee, however, insisted that Alkali must appear with an authority letter from the TETFUND executive secretary to represent him before the committee unfailingly on Friday, February 5, 2021, in accordance with the provisions of the law.
