The Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Tuesday, took a swipe at managements of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited ( NNPCL) and other agencies for their ‘persistent refusal to respond to queries raised against them in the 2019 Audit report.’
Chairman of the committee, Sen. Ahmed Wadada (SDP-Nasarawa West) made this known while speaking to newsmen in Abuja, decrying the attitude of the leaders of agencies who had persistently, even defiantly, refused to respond to queries raised against them in the 2019 audit report.
Wadada said that going forward, any agency that refused to honour invitation to defend its queries would have its queries sustained and reported to the senate in plenary by the committee, warning that the Committee would no longer contend with the ‘poor attitude’ of the affected agencies towards the committee’s oversight function, a situation he described as frustrating.
According to him, apart from the NNPCL, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Police, other heads of agencies, including the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, are in the habit of not honouring invitations
Others, according to him, are Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (former DPR) and Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, FCT Internal Revenue Service; Nigeria Immigration Service, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs; Ministry of Defence, Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited, among others.
He said: ” It is worthy to state that the committee commenced the consideration of the Audit Report in October 2023, with a view to presenting its report to the Plenary.
“However, some agencies have willfully failed to honour invitations to defend their written responses to the audit queries as submitted to the committee’s secretariat.
“Besides the demand for submission of written responses to audit queries, part of the committee’s rules of engagement requires that accounting officers attend its public hearing.
“This is 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 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.”
