By Willy King
The Senate committee on public accounts has issued a seven days ultimatum to the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN among others ministries, agencies and parastatal and other organisation of government to submit their audited account reports to the committee to aids in oversight function.
The committee chairmen, Senator Matthew Urhoghide in a press briefing held at the national assembly on Wednesday said the MDAs have already defaulted on their submission deadline, but insisted that they must comply within the next seven days or face the wrath of the senate.
“In order to ensure accountability and transparency in the management of public funds as well as guarantee economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of public resources, the senate public accounts committee issued correspondences to relevant institutions of government seeking their responses to enable the committee carry out special oversight functions in line with section 85, 88 and 89 of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Order 97(5) of the senate standing Order 2015 as amended.
” In the light of the above, All the defaulting agencies are by this notice, given the last opportunity to make submission before their invitation to the scheduled public hearings.
In view of the fact that some agencies have already defaulted in their submission deadline, Notice is hereby issued to defaulting MDAs and other organisations of government to without further delay make submission within seven (7) days that is, 20th-27th November, 2019 on their response to the issues raised by the committee it is various correspondences regarding their income and expenditure operations from 2017 to 2029,” he said.
The defaulting MDAs include; Office of the Accountant General of the federation, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Federal Capital Territory Administration, Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria Niger Delta Development Commission and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure.
Others include; National Investment Promotion Council, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, Nigeria Football Federation, Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, National Space Research and Development Agency, Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute, Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Petroleum Equalization Fund (Management) Boards, and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
While others are; Presidential Amnesty Programme, Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigeria Airspace Management Agency, Nigeria Insurance Trust Fund (NSIFT), Industrial Training Fund, Nigerian Railway Corporation, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency and Central Bank of Nigeria.