The office of the Auditor General of the Federation (oAuGF) has called on the Public Accounts Committees of both chambers of the National Assembly to conduct urgent, in-depth examinations and transmit their recommendations on the audit queries to the Executive for the implementation.
The oAuGF who gave the charge in the 2018 audit query report transmitted to the Chairmen of Senate and House of Representatives’ Committees on Public Accounts, also underscored the need for “clear sanctions should also be imposed on the erring officers,” that will serve as a deterrent.
Breakdown of the irregularities in payments/expenditures for 2018 fiscal year uncovered stood at N18,369,595,564.47 against N26,604,515,374.55 recorded in 2017 fiscal year; irregularities in contract award, execution and payments for 2018 stood at N23,486,881,920.49 against N28,569,846,170.59 for preceding year; Unretired Advances for 2018 stood at N354,223,774.67 against N1,410,254,803.68 for 2017; Store items not taken on store charge stood at N8,389,842,637.88 against N825,871,246.67 in 2017 while circumvention of procurement process stood at N371,750,964.37 against N1,195,652,660.06 for 2017.
“During our audit for the year 2018, we observed that 18 Revenue Generating Agencies failed in their statutory obligations of remitting revenue generated to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government. We also observed that 17 MDAs failed to either deduct or remit deductions by way of Value Added Tax (VAT), Withholding Tax (WHT), PAYE, Stamp Duties and other similar statutory deductions to the relevant agencies, thereby depriving the government of the much-needed fund to pursue its agenda,” the report stated.
The sum of N48,551,274,468.35 being Internally Generated Revenue was not remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government. Similarly, a total of N5,418,780,747.23 being statutory deductions by way of VAT, WHT, PAYE. Stamp Duties etc. were also either not deducted or not remitted to the relevant agencies. In all, a total of N54,690,055,215.58, being revenues generated in the year under review was not remitted to Government coffers.
Some of the MDAs that failed to remit IGR into the Consolidated Revenue Fund include: National Insurance Commission – N1,054,893,055.20; Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) – N1,446,887,167.70; Bank of Industry – N46,236,341,600.
The report also indicted Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) for Non-Deduction/Under Deduction to the tune of N1,446,887,167.70 as well as N1,435,711,405.80 unremitted Statutory Taxes, and Stamp Duties; Lagos University Teaching Hospital – N945,422,478.23 and additional sum of N22,307,735.21; Nigerian Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) – N577,634,638.20; National Insurance Commission – N225,837,920.45; while Financial Reporting Council was indicted for N720,000,000 being a violation of Federal Government’s directive on the transfer of balances from commercial banks to the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
It also indicted National Commission For Refugees, Migrants And Internally Displaced Persons of using the 2015 Appropriation worth N3,879,538,900 for servicing of debt incurred in 2014 without approval from the National Assembly, while the Hon. Commissioner was also asked to refund the sum of N43,044,800 paid for monitoring and evaluation of Constituency Projects which was later cancelled.
Similarly, the oAuGF also queried the Commission over supplies amounting to N5,470,134,400 for years 2015/2016 and supplies amounting to N1,674,527,949 in 2017 which were all not taken on ledger charge; N2,368,739,912.76 made without raising payment vouchers; N1,095,450,227.27 paid to contractors for supplies of different items without pre-payment audit; virement of N122,738,966.40 for a contract awarded and paid for from 2017 budget appropriation; variance between CBN REMITA print-out was N1,710,261,340.56, while the balances as at 25/4/2017 reduced to N1,489,061,054.43 without any corresponding debit entry(s).
To this end, the oAuGF recommended that: “Given the failure of the Accounting Officers of the defaulting MDAs in remitting the amounts due to the Federal Government, I recommend that the Accounting Officers and every other officer responsible for the infraction be surcharged accordingly, while the matter is referred to the either Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as stated in Financial Regulation 3112 (i) & (ii).
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