The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has condemned the management of 15 agencies, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and Nigeria Police Force, for their consistent failure to address queries raised in the 2019 Audit Report.
At a press briefing in Abuja, Committee Chairman Senator Ahmed Aliyu (SDP Nasarawa West) expressed frustration that despite numerous opportunities, the heads of these agencies have refused to respond to the queries.
The affected agencies have been given multiple chances to clarify and justify their actions, but their persistent silence has raised concerns about transparency and accountability.
Senator Aliyu emphasized that the committee will not tolerate this level of non-compliance and will take necessary actions to ensure that the agencies are held accountable for their actions.
He stated that going forward, any agency that refuses to honour an invitation to defend its queries will have its queries sustained and reported to the Senate plenary by the committee.
“It is worthy to state that the Committee commenced the consideration of the Audit Report in October, 2023, to present its report to the Plenary,” Aliyu said.
“However, some agencies have willfully failed to honour invitations to defend their written responses to the audit queries as submitted to the Committee Secretariat.
“Beside the demand for submission of 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 a basis for informed decision on the matter by the Committee.
“The desire of the Public Accounts Committee to timely discharge its constitutional and legislative function is being by the evasive and negative actions of some CEOs or accounting officers of the concerned MDAs.
“The Committee is very displeased with the attitude of foot dragging by agencies who are by law, expected to respond to parliamentary invitations and account for their actions.
“The Committee has over time, extended invitations to those agencies providing them ample opportunities to defend their queries but for reasons best known to them, these agencies have chosen to disregard invitations.”
To Aliyu, the attitude of the affected public agencies on persistent refusal to respond to queries against them in audit reports was frustrating and detrimental to the aspirations and goals of President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government.
