The House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Accounts on Thursday called for arrest and prosecution of all Chief Accounting Officers of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited; Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and 51 others over flagrant breach of extant financial regulations and the provision of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The report on the ‘Deliberate and reckless refusal by Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government to render Audited Accounts for the periods 2014–2018 and 2019–2021 to the Auditor–General for the Federation’, which was laid before the House for consideration by Chairman, House Committee on Public accounts, Hon. Oluwole Oke.
Similarly, the Committee recommended that EFCC should prosecute former and present Vice Chancellors, former Bursars of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta for non-rendition of 2012-2018 audited accounts; Vice Chancellor and Bursar of Federal University of Technology Owerri should be sanctioned and handed over to EFCC for delay in rendition of 2011 – 2014 and for non-rendition of 2016 – 2018; former and present Vice Chancellors and Bursars, former Bursars should be sanctioned and handed over to EFCC for non-rendition of 2012-2018 audited accounts, while the Managing Director and Director of Finance & Admin of Nigeria Communication Satellite (NigComSat) should be sanctioned and handed over to the EFCC for non-rendition of 2014 – 2016 audited accounts.
After thorough scrutiny of the 2014 -2018 audit reports, the Committee recommended that all MDAs should be directed to submit their audited account on or before 31st May every year; the Board or Governing Council Meeting should be convened to sign audited accounts immediately after it is submitted by the External Auditors; the absence of a Board or Governing Council, the Supervising body of the MDAs should sign audited accounts in order to avoid delay in rendition to the Office of the Auditor-General and that no outgoing CEO should exit Office without duly completing the process of audited accounts, signed and rendered to the Office of the Auditor-General.
The Committee further proposed that there should be, from time to time, a Seminar organized for the CEOs and their DFAs/Bursar on the need for timely rendition; the Office of the Auditor-General should acknowledge receipt of any rendition by clearly and properly stamping, endorsing and dating it; under no circumstance should a provision of MDAs Act be contrary to the provision of sections 85, 88 and 89 of the Constitution. Section 85 of the Constitution and the Audit Circular mandate MDAs to submit their audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor-General; the Executive Arm of Government should compel MDAs to respect and honour invitations by the legislative Arm of Government.
The Committee also alleged that all the Chief Accounting Officers of the 54 Government Agencies listed on pages 4 – 6 that refused to appear to defend their positions during the Public Hearing without any written reason, prominent among them are; Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), NDDC, Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission etc., should be issued warrant of arrest to compel their appearance to respond to the matter within a week in line with section 89 (d) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
The Committee also urge the House to consider the Committee’s findings and approve the recommendations as contained therein; further to the latest submissions by the Auditor General for the Federation on the rendition of accounts by Agencies and Institutions of government covering the 2019–2020 financial years, the House may wish to direct the Committee to further carry out an investigation on all the agencies listed in the submission.
In its recommendations on the 2019 -2021 audit reports, the Committee urged Federal Ministry of Finance, Accountant General of the Federation and Auditor–General for the Federation to jointly issue a Government Circular specifying strong sanctions against Agencies that violated FR 3010; that many Agencies often violate the Appropriation Act by deliberately subjecting their internally generated revenue to some Committees directly overseeing them for approval and expend same illegally without Mr. President’s assent.
Hon. Oke who underscored the need to issue warrant of arrest to compel their appearance of the affected public office holders to respond to the matter within a week in line with section 89(d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), recommended various sanction for accounting officers and DFAs of Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN); Security and Exchange Commission (SEC); Petroleum Equalization Management Board (PEMB); National Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF); Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN); Federal Housing Authority (FHA); Nigeria Integrated Water Resources (NIWA); Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC); National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA); Nigeria Customs Service (NCS); Abuja Investment Company (AIC); Administrative Staff College, Badagry, Lagos State; Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN); Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency; University of Jos; University of Ilorin; Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia; Federal University of Technology, Akure; Federal University, Gusau; Husseini Adamu Federal Polytechnic, Kazaure; Federal College of Education, Asaba; Federal College of Education, Obudu; University of Agriculture, Makurdi; Federal Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti; Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja; National Medical Research, Lagos; Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo State; National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research, Idu, Abuja; among others.
. _Reps in session_
