The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Nigeria Police Force, and 12 government agencies are on collision course with the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.
The Committee chairman Senator Ahmed Wadada Aliyu representing Nasarawa West on the Social Democratic Party ticket told journalists in Abuja Tuesday that the agencies have failed to respond to issues raised on their 2019 audited account reports.
The agencies include NNPCL, FIRS, and the Police, other agencies involved in this practice include the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (formerly DPR), and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
FCT Internal Revenue Service, the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, and the Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited.
“It is worthy to note that the Committee commenced consideration of the Audit Report in October 2023, with the intention of presenting its findings to the Plenary.
“However, some agencies have willfully failed to honor invitations to defend their written responses to the audit queries submitted to the Committee Secretariat.
“Beyond the requirement for submitting written responses to audit queries, part of the Committee’s rules of engagement requires that Accounting Officers attend the Committee’s Public Hearing to respond to questions arising from the analysis of their submissions, which in turn forms the basis for informed decisions by the Committee.
“It is on this note that we, as a committee, have resolved that going forward, the Senate Public Accounts Committee will proceed to consider their audit queries as contained in the Auditor-General’s Annual Report. Any MDA that fails to honor invitations to respond and present its defense will have the Auditor’s position adopted by the Committee.
“This resolution will be added to our rules of engagement if MDAs do not improve their attendance in response to our invitations.”
