The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Audited Accounts

  • Osun presents 2015, 2016 audited accounts

    Osun State has presented its 2015 and 2016 audited accounts.

    This is in a bid to achieve transparency and accountability in the management of finances.

    The presentation made Osun a pacesetter among the six participating states in the State and Local Governance Reform (SLOGOR) Project.

    Others are Anambra, Cross River, Jigawa, Kano and Yobe.

    Participants at the forum described the Governor Rauf Aregbesola administration as accountable, transparent and open, particularly in the management of public treasury.

    The programme, organised by Office of the Auditor-General in Osun State, in collaboration with SLOGOR Project (EU/World Bank Assisted), was held at Aurora Event Centre, Osogbo.

    The Auditor-General, Mr. Folorunso Adesina, put the revenue for 2015 at N85.9 billion, while recurrent expenditure was N66.9 billion. Capital expenditure was put at N17.9 billion.

    He said revenue for 2016 was N91.5 billion, adding that recurrent expenditure for the same year was N61.1 billion and capital expenditure N28.3 billion.

    Adesina said the audit was conducted in accordance with international standard, as applicable to the public sector and provisions of Section 125 (5) of the Constitution.

    He said in compliance with Section 125 (2) of the Constitution as amended, “I have examined the accounts and financial statements of the Osun State for the year ending December 31, 2015.

    “In my opinion, projects and programmes executed were satisfactory in consideration of fund employed. The financial statements and related schedules gave a true and fair view of Osun State as at December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2016.”

    The state Coordinator, SLOGOR, Mr. Yemi Ijidele, hailed the Aregbesola government for its accountability, prudent management of resources and for following financial best practices.

    The Chairman, House of Assembly Committee on Public Accounts, Mr. Olalekan Afolabi, hailed the government for prioritising transparency, accountability, probity and openness.

    The Head of Service, Dr. Festus Olowogboyega Oyebade, said the government had demonstrated sincerity of purpose in the management of public funds.

     

    State releases IGR for eight years

    •Rumour of fictitious figures dismissed

     

     

    Osun State, through the Office of the Statistician-General, has released the figure of its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for eight years, from 2010 to 2017.

    In a statement yesterday, the Statistician-General, Prof. Wasiu Gbolagade, dismissed the rumour that Osun was fictitiously giving incorrect figures as a window dressing.

    He said in 2010, the IGR stood at N3,376,735,645.43k, rose to N7,398,572,036.48k in 2011 and was N5,020,250,633.94k in 2012.

    Gbolagade said the IGR in 2013 was N7,284,225,003.77k, became N8,513,274,186.67k in 2014, while it was N8,072,966,446.00k in 2015, N8,884,756,040.35k in 2016 and N11,731,026,444.38k in 2017.

    He said: “The IGR increased from N3.38 billion in 2010 to N8.51 billion in 2014. It increased from N8.88 billion in 2016 to N11.73 billion in 2017, representing percentage increase of 32.4. This corroborates the claim of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

    “The types of IGR the state depends mostly on are PAYE, MDAs revenue, direct assessment, road taxes and other taxes. Of the above, PAYE generated the highest revenue for the state.

    “Whoever that doesn’t believe can approach the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), State Bureau of Statistics (SBS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and World Bank for records and verification because the investment of the state in infrastructure, serene and secure environment, friendly government private sector interaction and fairly acceptable taxes triggered in no small quota the figures seen. By our projection, the state will hit the target soon.

    “It is worthy to note for public consumption and enlightenment that N6.496 billion quoted from NBS table is meant for nine months, not 12 months in 2017. This growth rate excludes Osun, which is just nine months. The NBS did not capture Q4, which were the last three months from October to December, 2017, standing at N6.496 billion of the 2017 total figure.”

     

  • ‘N351b NHIS fraud’: HMOs get deadline on audited accounts

    ‘N351b NHIS fraud’: HMOs get deadline on audited accounts

    The House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services has issued a two-day deadline to 35 Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) to present their audited accounts.

    Chairman of the committee Chike Okafor, in a chat with reporters at the weekend, said the directive was part of the committee’s investigation into the alleged mismanagement of N351 billion paid to the HMOs between 2005 and 2016.

    He said of the 59 HMOs paid from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the last 11years, only 24 of them made their accounts available to auditing consultants appointed by his committee to ascertain amounts paid to them.

    According to the lawmaker, the committee decided to give defaulting HMOs till Wednesday to make their books available to the auditors.

    This, he said, is to allow HMOs present their own side of the matter.

    Okafor said: “As we announced on the final day of the public hearing on the allegations of fraud in health insurance administration and the maltreatment on enrollees on NHIS, the committee sent auditors to Lagos State to thoroughly scrutinise the books of HMOs.

    “This was done to compare the figures the NHIS said it paid HMOs overtime to what they actually received. So far, the auditors have gone through the accounts of 24 of them, with 35 of these companies yet to meet with those we sent.

    “The NHIS provided us with all the documents to show how much they paid. But we cannot conclude the investigation without checking what the HMOs received and this is why we have given them till Wednesday to allow for a checking of their account.”

    On the three-month suspension of the NHIS Executive-Secretary, Prof. Usman Yusuf and the mandate given to the committee to interrogate the Health Minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole, on the issue, Okafor confirmed that the minister will appear before his committee on Thursday.

  • Senate committee demands audited accounts of NNPC, others

    Senate committee demands audited accounts of NNPC, others

    • Agencies give year 2020 deadline to end gas flaring

    The Senate Committee on Gas Resources yesterday asked the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) and its subsidiaries to submit all their detailed audited accounts for the past three years.

    The Committee also blamed Federal Government agencies for the worsening gas flaring in the country.

    The committee noted that inability of relevant enforce payment of stipulated penalties on erring International Oil Companies, (IOCs), was mainly responsible for increased gas flaring.

    Apart from the NNPC, others mandated to submit their audited accounts are the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Nigerian Petroleum Investment and Management Service (NAPIMS), Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).

    Chairman of the committee, Senator Albert Akpan, gave the directive during the committee’s engagement with the agencies in Abuja.

    Akpan said the directive was in line with the mandate of the committee in its ongoing investigation into the activities of the agencies.

    He said that details of the accounts must be submitted as soon as possible to enable his committee meet its deadline given by the Senate.

    The audited account, he said, would afford the committee the opportunity to know the joint venture funding and cost determination of the oil companies and government agencies.

    He said: “From the audited account, we will know also who approves projects and how are the projects monitored and the mechanism for cost recovery and monitoring of the projects.”

    Akpan also asked the agencies to present the data of the quality of gas flared by the oil companies in the past two years.

    He said, “Give us the submission of the gas that you have flared and each of your operators involved. The quality of gas flared, the operators, the terminal and the related penalties paid.”

    The panel chairman frowned at the 2016 budget of the Department of Petroleum Resources, saying that N3 billion only earmarked by the agency on penalties for gas flaring, was grossly inadequate.

    Group General Manager, NAPIMS /NNPC, Dafe Sajebor and the Managing Director of National Petroleum Development Corporation, Sadler Mai-Bornu, assured that the organizations were working assiduously to end gas flaring in the country between 2018 and 2020.

    “The percentage of gas flared in the country is of average, seven percent and we are still working on a number of projects to flare out; we are targeting 2018 for us to have a total flare out.

    “Those evolutions have  been translated and proposed for better fiscal regime in the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, and that is why we are praying and hoping that the PIB should be passed so that Nigerians can derive better benefits from the oil and gas investment,“ the NAPIMS boss said.

  • Senate committee demands audited accounts of NNPC, others

    Senate committee demands audited accounts of NNPC, others

    The Senate Committee on Gas Resources Wednesday asked the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) and its subsidiaries to submit all their detailed audited accounts in the past three years.

    The committee also blamed Federal Government agencies for the worsening gas flaring in the country.

    The committee noted that inability of relevant enforce payment of stipulated penalties on erring International Oil Companies, OICs, was mainly responsible for increased gas flaring.

    Apart from the NNPC, others mandated to submit their audited accounts are the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, Nigerian Petroleum Investment and Management Service, NAPIMS, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG.

    Chairman of the committee, Senator Albert Akpan, gave the directive during the committee’s engagement with the agencies in Abuja.

    Akpan said the directive was in line with the mandate of the committee in its ongoing investigation into the activities of the agencies.

    He said that details of the accounts must be submitted as soon as possible to enable his committee meet its deadline given by the Senate.

    The audited account, he said, would afford the committee the opportunity to know the joint venture funding and cost determination of the oil companies and government agencies.

    He said, “From the audited account, we will know also who approves projects and how are the projects monitored and the mechanism for cost recovery and monitoring of the projects.”

    Akpan also asked the agencies to present the data of the quality of gas flared by the oil companies in the past two years.

    He said, “Give us the submission of the gas that you have flared and each of your operators involved. The quality of gas flared, the operators, the terminal and the related penalties paid.”

    The panel chairman frowned at the 2016 budget of the Department of Petroleum Resources, saying that N3 billion only earmarked by the agency on penalties for gas flaring, was grossly inadequate.

    Group General Manager, NAPIMS /NNPC, Dafe Sajebor and the Managing Director of National Petroleum Development Corporation, Sadler Mai-Bornu, assured that the organizations were working assiduously to end gas flaring in the country between 2018 and 2020.

    “The percentage of gas flared in the country is of average, seven percent and we are still working on a number of projects to flare out; we are targeting 2018 for us to have a total flare out.

    “Those evolutions have  been translated and proposed for better fiscal regime in the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, and that is why we are praying and hoping that the PIB should be passed so that Nigerians can derive better benefits from the oil and gas investment, ” the NAPIMS boss said.