Senate Thursday queried the auditor-general of the Federation, Samuel Ukura, for gross negligence on audited annual reports of Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) from 2009 to 2014.
Consequently, it ordered the auditor-general to issue clearance certificates to government agencies whose annual audited reports had been cleared.
The auditor-general incurred the wrath of the Senate from its committee on Public Accounts during a session with heads of MDAs on annual reports of their audited accounts from 2009 to 2014.
While the Auditor- General’s reports on the MDAs forwarded to the Senate accused many of the agencies of non-submission of their annual audited reports, the agencies countered by claiming submission of the reports with evidence.
For instance, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) debunked the claim made in the report of the Auditor- General that it didn’t make available its audited reports of 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Other MDAs like the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigerian Ports Authority, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) etc, also debunked claims made by the Auditor-General against them on non-submission of annual reports between 2009 and 2014.
The apex bank insisted that its audited reports for the years listed have long been submitted to the office of the Auditor- General based on queries raised to that effect.
The CBN Deputy-Governor (Operations), Bayo Adelabu who represented the Governor, Godwin Emefiele told the Committee that in line with Section 65 (3d) of the 1999 constitution (as amended) and the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, the apex bank submits its annual reports of any previous year on February 28 yearly.
Represented by Isaac Dada, a director in the A-G office, Ukura said reports forwarded to the Senate were based on available documents on findings made.
But chairman of the committee, Andy Uba, (PDP, Anambra South) accused him of giving unsatisfactory explanation.
He stressed that for the needed harmonization to be seen to have been done, the Auditor-General should issue clearance certificate to agencies whose annual reports have been cleared up to 2014 before the next meeting with the Committee.
