The Senate has declared that it would be forced to withhold budgetary approvals for any government agency and parastatal which failed to submit at least two previous years’ audited reports to the Auditor-General of the Federation (AGF).
The decision followed the adoption of a report of the Senate Public Accounts Committee (PAC) presented to the chamber by its Chairman, Sen. Matthew Uroghide during plenary on Wednesday.
The report indicated that at least 85 agencies of government including the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had never submitted audited reports since their creation.
According to Urhoghide, out of 447 agencies and parastatals, only 40 have complied with the submission of the 2017 audit reports stating that the constitution mandated the AGF to receive audited reports from the agencies and submit the same to the National Assembly.
“EFCC is of the opinion that once they come for budget defence, it amounts to submitting their audited reports. The EFCC Act itself says they have to submit their audited reports six months into the financial year,” he stated.
In his remarks, the President of the Senate Dr Bukola Saraki condemned the development saying that the situation was unhelpful to the war against corruption.
“Imagine that out of 447 parastatals, only 40 have complied with the 2017 audited reports. When they say we are not making much progress in the anti-corruption fight it is because of the fundamental issues, they are right, the foundation is still very weak,” he said.
