The Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Tuesday, blasted the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Police Force and 12 other MDAs for their persistent failure to respond to queries raised against them in the 2019 report of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF).
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ahmed Wadada Aliyu (SDP – Nasarawa West), told reporters in Abuja that since heads of the affected agencies refused to respond to queries raised against them in the 2019 audit report after several opportunities given them to do so, any agency that refuses to honour invitation to defend queries, the panel would sustain such queries and equally report them to the Senate in plenary.
He added that the attitude of the affected public agencies on persistent refusal to respond to queries against them in the audit report was both frustrating and detrimental to the aspirations and goals of the President Bola Tinubu-led federal government.
He said that apart from the NNPCL, FIRS and the Nigeria Police Force, other heads of agencies involved in the habit of not honouring committee’s invitation to respond to queries against them are the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (former DPR) and Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment.
Others are the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Internal Revenue Service,
Nigeria Immigration Service, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited, etc.
Wadada said: “It is worthy to state that the Committee commenced the consideration of the Audit Report in October, 2023, with a view to presenting its report to the plenary.
“However, some agencies have willfully failed to honour invitations to defend their written responses to the audit queries as submitted to the Committee’s Secretariat.
“Besides the demand for submission of written responses to audit queries, part of the Committee’s rules of engagement require that Accounting Officers attend the Committee’s Public Hearing to respond to questions arising from the analysis of their submissions which in turn forms a basis for informed decision on the matter by the Committee.
“The desire of the Public Accounts Committee to timeously discharge its constitutional and legislative function is being frustrated by the evasive and negative actions of some CEOs or accounting officers of the concerned MDAs.
“The Committee is very displeased with the attitude of foot-dragging by agencies who are by law, expected to respond to parliamentary invitations and account for their actions.
“The Committee has over time, extended invitations to these agencies providing them ample opportunities to defend queries against them but for reasons best known to them, these agencies have chosen to disregard invitations.
“It is on this note that we as a Committee have resolved that going forward, the Senate Public Accounts Committee will go ahead to consider their audit queries as contained in the Auditor-General Annual’s Report and any MDA that henceforth fails to honour invitations to respond and present its defence, the Committee will adopt the position of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
“Also, this resolution would be added to our rules of engagement if MDAs fail to improve on their attendance to our invitations.”
He however stated that the “Committee is not in doubt of the Commitment of the present administration under the stewardship of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to make Nigeria better but with the attitude of the afore mentioned Chief Executives, that will not be achievable unless and until we all do the needful.”
