Audit query: Reps drag defiant ministers, MDAs’ heads to Buhari

Worried by the continued refusal of some ministers, heads of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to appear before the House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee over several audit queries raised by the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), the committee has resolved to report them to President Muhammadu Buhari.

The chairman of the committee, Hon Wole Oke (PDP/Osun), disclosed this at the weekend following the absence of the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd (NNPC) and that of its 17 subsidiaries “for the umpteenth time on the numerous audit queries against them.”

Oke said that the committee had also resolved to further extract the queries raised against the defaulting MDAs from the Auditor- General of the Federation’s Report, covering the years under review and publish such in the national dailies for the President and the public to see how billions of naira and dollars of tax payers’ money were being wasted.

Oke, who regretted that the committee was tired of summoning the concerned agencies and their heads, said the clerk of the committee had been directed to compile the list of the defaulting MDAs and forward same with covering letters to the Chief of Staff to President Buhari, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, for judicial notice.

Other defaulting MDAs, according to the Committee chairman, are: National Insurance Commission, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Federal Ministry of Mines & Steel Development, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Federal Ministry of Health, among others.

The unanswered queries, according to Oke, bothered on the following: “Abuse of fiscal policies, non-rendition of audited accounts, status inquiry and service-wide votes dating back to 2013.

“The committee decided to extract and publish such audit queries in the national dailies for the public to see the truth for themselves; we are not the authors of the queries but the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation. Rather than appear before the committee and speak to the facts, they will stay away and be issuing counter press statements to blackmail the parliament

“The Committee is not out to witch-hunt any individual or any organization. For instance, the Office of the Auditor-General queried an agency for spending a whopping sum of N45 million within a week for a room in hotel in Abuja, we invited the management of the hotel, they appeared before the Committee, gave us vital information; and we invited the management of the concerned agency several times, but they had refused to show up for their defence till today.

“But we believe that by reporting them to their employer, they will be forced to show up, before ordering their arrest. No amount of blackmail will stop us from doing our jobs; enough is enough,” he said

(New Telegraph)