FHA accounts unaudited for 16 years

 Tony Akowe, Abuja

THE Federal Housing Authority (FHA) has said its accounts had not been audited for 16 years.

The agency announced this on Wednesday during a public hearing on the accounts of Federal Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the National Assembly in Abuja.

The FHA was giving evidence when it appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts.

FHA’s Managing Director Umar Salihu Gonto told the committee, chaired by Oluwole Oke, that the agency could not submit its audited accounts to the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF), as required by law, because there were no such accounts to submit.

The House had mandated its committee to investigate the refusal of Non-Treasury Funded and Partially Funded Agencies to render their audited accounts for 2014-2018 to AGF.

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Gonto had denied claims by the Auditor General that the FHA did not submit audited account but backed down when the committee compelled him to prove that the agency submitted its up-to-date audited account to the AGF.

Oke had read a query by AGF that the FHA last submitted its audited accounts in 2003 and urged the agency’s boss to react.

Gonto claimed that he was new at the agency and that the FHA was not a revenue-generating agency.

The FHA boss claimed that available records showed that proper audited accounts had been submitted, as required by its enabling law.

When the committee asked him how long he had been working with the agency before he was appointed the Managing Director, Gonto said he had worked with the FHA for about 30 years before his current appointment.

The committee ordered for status enquiry int its activities.