By Michael Agbaji
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Tuesday has threatened to use a big stick on Agencies of Governments who failed to appear before its committee on Public Accounts.
Chairman Senate Committee of Public Accounts Senator Ahmed Wadada said while he expressed displeasure over the attitude of some Agencies of Government that appeared before the Committee.
According to him,Section 62 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as altered, states The Senate or the House of
Representatives may appoint a committee of its members for such special or general purpose as in its opinion would be better regulated and managed by means of such a committee, and may by resolution, regulation or otherwise, as it thinks fit, delegate any functions exercisable by it to any such committee.
He said provisions of Sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria and Rule 95(5) of the Standing Orders of the Senate, 2023 (as amended) vest the Public
Accounts Committee with the mandate of ensuring accountability
and transparency in the management of the public accounts of
the Federation.
He further clarified the powers of the Committee which he says is to consider and inquire into the Report of the Auditor-General for the Federation on the Accounts of the Federation and to also embark on status inquiry on revenue generation and expenditures of the accounts of the Federation.
The Committee expressed displeasure at the attitude of some MDAs and their CEOs towards their invitations to defend the audit queries raised against them in the Auditor-General’s Annual Report for the Year ended 31st December, 2019.
He urged the agencies to respond to parliamentary invitations and account for their actions with immediate effect that ample opportunities to defend their queries, as any of the agencies who chose to dIsregard invitations will have itself to blame.
The list of the concerned recalcitrant
agencies include:
- Office of the Accountant General of the Federation
2.. Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office
4 Federal Inland Revenue Service - Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (former
DPR) - Nigeria Police Force
- Federal Ministry of Industrv. Trade & Investment
- FCT Internal Revenue Service
- Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited
- Nigeria Immigration Service
- Federal Ministry of Women Affairs
- Ministry of Defence
- Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited
- and others
He said because of their failure to appeayrs and defend themselves the Senate Public Accounts Committee have no choice but to go ahead to consider their audit queries as contained in the Auditor-General Annual’s Report.
