Senate threatens action against NNPCL, FIRS, others over audit defiance

The Senate, through its Committee on Public Accounts, has slammed the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Nigeria Police Force, and 12 other agencies for persistently refusing to respond to queries raised against them in the 2019 Audit Report.

Expressing the committee’s frustration to journalists on Tuesday, the Chairman, Senator Ahmed Wadada Aliyu (SDP Nasarawa West), stated that the heads of the affected agencies had repeatedly ignored opportunities to respond to the queries.

Senator Wadada warned that going forward, any agency that refuses to honour invitations to defend its queries will have those queries sustained and reported to the Senate Plenary by the committee.

He added that the persistent refusal of these public agencies to respond to audit queries was frustrating and detrimental to the aspirations and goals of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

According to Senator Wadada, in addition to the NNPCL, FIRS, and the Police, other agencies involved in this practice include the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (formerly DPR), and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

Other agencies named include the FCT Internal Revenue Service, the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, and the Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited.

Wadada said, “It is worthy to note that the Committee commenced consideration of the Audit Report in October 2023, with the intention of presenting its findings to the Plenary.

“However, some agencies have willfully failed to honor invitations to defend their written responses to the audit queries submitted to the Committee Secretariat.

“Beyond the requirement for submitting 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 the basis for informed decisions by the Committee.”

He added, “The desire of the Public Accounts Committee to timely discharge its constitutional and legislative function is being hindered by the evasive and negative actions of some CEOs or accounting officers of the concerned MDAs.

“The Committee is very displeased with the foot-dragging attitude of agencies that are legally expected to respond to parliamentary invitations and account for their actions.

“The Committee has repeatedly extended invitations to these agencies, providing them with ample opportunities to defend their queries, but for reasons best known to them, they have chosen to disregard these invitations.

“It is on this note that we, as a Committee, have resolved that going forward, the Senate Public Accounts Committee will proceed to consider their audit queries as contained in the Auditor-General’s Annual Report. Any MDA that fails to honor invitations to respond and present its defense will have the Auditor’s position adopted by the Committee.

“This resolution will be added to our rules of engagement if MDAs do not improve their attendance in response to our invitations,” the committee chairman added.

He concluded by stating that the committee does not doubt the commitment of the present administration, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to improve Nigeria.

However, he cautioned that this goal will not be achievable unless and until all involved do what is necessary.