Senate on Wednesday said it would
be forced to withhold budgetary approvals for any government agency and
parastatal which failed to submit at least two previous years’ audited reports
to the Auditor-General of the Federation (AGF).
The decision followed the
adoption of a report of the Senate Public Accounts Committee (PAC) presented to
the chamber by its Chairman, Sen. Matthew Uroghide during plenary.
The report indicated that at
least 85 agencies of government including the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had never submitted audited
reports since their creation.
In adopting the report, the
Senate issued a May 2018 deadline to all parastatals to submit audited reports
in line with Section 85 of the 1999 Constitution.
According to Urhoghide, out of
447 agencies and parastatals, only 40 have complied with the submission of the
2017 audit reports.
He said that the constitution
mandated the AGF to receive audited reports from the agencies and submit the
same to the National Assembly.
He said: “EFCC is of the opinion
that once they come for budget defence, it amounts to submitting their audited
reports. The EFCC Act itself says they have to submit
their audited reports six months into the financial year.”
In his remarks, the President of
the Senate Dr Bukola Saraki condemned the development saying that the situation
was unhelpful to the war against corruption.
He said: “Imagine that out of 447
parastatals, only 40 have complied with the 2017 audited reports. When they say
we are not making much progress in the anti-corruption fight it is because of
the fundamental issues, they are right, the foundation is still very weak.
“If we have 447 parastatals and
only 40 have sent their audited reports, there is a serious problem. Now, we
find out that the agencies that are even meant to supervise are part of those
who have not sent in their audit reports
“Now, we have taken a resolution
here today to say that unless the remaining agencies do that their budgets for
2018 is withheld.
“Therefore, let us remember that
when we are passing the 2018 budget, the committees that are presenting the
reports of the parastatals should please confirm to us whether they have
complied with the auditor’s report.
“In the meantime, we will make
sure that we also communicate to the Secretary of the Government of the
Federation (SGF) to ensure that all these parastatals get their accounts
audited and submitted,” Saraki said.
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