Auditor-General Uncovers Multi-Billion Naira ‘Fraud’ In N/Assembly

The office of the Auditor- General for the Federation (AuGF) in its 2019 Annual Audit Report has indicted the management of the National Assembly over how it spent funds running into billions of naira.

The AGF, Aghughu Adolphus, in the audit queries uncovered how over N8.5 billion from the funds released to the National Assembly were expended within the period under review without evidence.

The report, submitted to the Clerk to the National Assembly in August this year as required by the constitution, said the monies under scrutiny were not backed by vouchers and retirement documents.

The audit report uncovered various infractions by the House of Representatives, the Senate and the National Assembly Service Commission. The audit report is usually submitted to the National Assembly Public Accounts committees for investigation.

Daily Trust reports that for over a year, the Senate Public Accounts Committee has been investigating expenditures of federal government agencies from 2015 – 2018 based on a report by the Auditor- General for the Federation.

In June this year, the panel presented the report of its six months investigation on the Federation Account for the year 2015 to the plenary.

The committee’s Chairman, Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo), in his presentation, disclosed that 114 MDAs were queried in the 2015 audit report, out of which 59 had their queries sustained after the probe.

In the course of the investigation, Urhoghide said his panel observed across board, the incessant violation of extant rules by MDAs.

On several occasions, Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Senator Urhoghide had threatened erring MDAs with zero budgetary allocation.

However, the panel did not make public its findings on the audit queries raised against the spending of the National Assembly management, which manages the finances of the federal parliament.

Read More:https://dailytrust.com/auditor-general-uncovers-multi-billion-naira-fraud-in-n-assembly

Ifah Sunday Ele
Ifah Sunday Ele
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