By Tony Akowe, Abuja
The Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF) has indicted government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government for fragrantly and consistently failing to respect extant financial regulations despite several warnings.
The AuGF, in its latest audit, stated that a sum of N105.760 billion worth of infractions were observed while identifying several weaknesses and lapses in the management of public funds.
The audit also included recommendations that should yield a substantial saving to the government purse if followed up through resolutions by the National Assembly.
The AuGF recommended stringent sanctions be imposed on the erring agencies and their Chief Executive who do not render timely accounts as provided in the Constitution, Financial Regulations, and other relevant laws.
The part one of the annual report with reference number C/AR.2018/CONF/vol.1/01 Dated 16th October, 2020 was signed by the immediate past Auditor General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine and addressed to the Clerk to the National Assembly.
“I am required by Section 85 (5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), to submit my Report on the audit of the Accountant-General’s Financial Statements to the National Assembly within 90 days of receipt of the statements from the Accountant-General of the Federation.
“The Consolidated Financial Statements of the Federal Government of Nigeria for the year ended 31st December 2018 was submitted by the Accountant-General of the Federation on 27th May 2020. Following audit queries, an updated version was resubmitted on 6th October 2020 and was still under audit in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution as at the time of this report.
“The Financial Statements of Government Statutory Corporations, Companies, Commissions, etc., otherwise called Parastatals are not audited by my office, in line with Section 85 (3) (a) of the 1999 Constitution. However, in accordance with Section 85 (3) (b) of the Constitution, their Annual Accounts and Audit reports thereon shall be submitted to me for vetting and my comments.
“Several of the government corporations, companies and commissions have not submitted their audited accounts to me as at the time of this report despite the provision of the Financial Regulation 3210 (v) which enjoins the Chief Executive Officers of these bodies to submit both the audited accounts and management reports to me not later than 31st May, of the following year of the accounts.
“Although, we have noticed an improvement since my last report, there are still violations of statutory financial reporting obligations by Parastatals. Stringent sanctions, including withholding financial releases and sanctioning of the Chief Executive Officer, should be imposed on defaulting Agencies who do not render timely accounts as provided in the Constitution, Financial Regulations, and other relevant laws,” the audit stated.
According to the report, several major weaknesses and lapses in the management of public funds and resources were identified across several MDAs during the annual audit.
A separate section was included in the annual report to highlight key crosscutting issues, which range from irregular expenditure, under and non-remittance of revenue generated by MDAs, items of stores not taken on charge and high magnitude of unretired advances.
According to the report, also still recurring, was the continuing failures in the implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and general indication of significant weaknesses in expenditure control, and financial reporting.
“Efforts by the Federal Government to improve the annual budgeting process have resulted in the restoration of the budget cycle to January – December, effective from the 2020 budget year. This will no doubt lead to significant improvement and success in the nation’s budgeting and budget execution processes.
“However, as in earlier years, 2018 witnessed low levels of budgetary releases across government. This had a direct impact on the ability of the MDAs to perform their functions and rendered the annual budget execution process ineffective to a large extent, especially regarding capital expenditure,” the report stated.
The Auditor General expressed concern over low response to audit queries by Accounting Officers of Ministries, Department and Agencies of government, but commended the 9th Assembly presenting a fresh opportunity for the Public Accounts Committees to achieve a positive impact in this regard by ensuring that sanctions applicable to nonresponsive behavior by Accounting Officers and their management are enforced.
He however identified severe funding constraints as a major impediment to achieving the statutory and constitutional mandates of the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAuGF), especially as the office is not able to self-fund a significant amount of fieldwork.
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