Unaudited accounts: Reps place JAMB, TETFUND, NDLEA on status enquiry

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has placed status enquiry on the accounts of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) over their failure to submit audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation from 2014 till date.

The committee, chaired by Rep. Wole Oke, made the resolution on Monday at the resumed public hearing on the refusal of non-treasury funded and partially funded agencies to render their audited accounts between 2014 and 2018 to the Auditor-General of the Federation.

Rep Oke declared the decision became necessary as it had been established that the institutions ran afoul of the law and that the status enquiry would enable the committee to investigate and expose irregularities in the account.

The committee frowned at the late submission of the 2014 audited account of JAMB to the auditor-general after two years.

The lawmakers discovered that the audited accounts submitted for 2014 which was submitted in 2016 was signed by the new registrar which was not supposed to be so.

ALSO READ: NASS: TETFund boss defends late submission of 2014, 2015, 2016 accounts

According to him, “we will place JAMB on status enquiry, they should furnish this house in writing why their accounts were submitted late.

“Why should the current registrar sign for the outgone registrar, they should defend that and they should furnish the procurement records of the external auditor.”

Consequently, further action relating to the agency was stepped down to allow for the full investigation as ordered by the committee.

In a related development, the committee also placed the Tertiary Education Fund, TETFUND and the NDLEA on the status enquiry over alleged similar infractions.

However, the Executive Secretary of TETFUND, Prof Suleiman Bogoro defended the agency as one of the agencies of the Federal Government that has up-to-date records and the management under his watch has nothing hide.

The committee also summoned the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procumbent (BPP) and the Accountant-General of the Federation over the submission of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).