CBN, FIRS, NNPC Bosses Accused Of Ignoring Audit Queries As Financial Irregularities Found In Accounts

Financial irregularities in the accounts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) have put Godwin Emefiele, Mele Kyari, Muhammad Nami, others under investigation with questions to answer.

The CBN, FIRS, NNPC bosses had reportedly been issued audit queries by the Auditor-General of the Federation but they failed to respond to it according to Punch, resulting in the House of Representatives summoning Emefiele, Kyari and Nami for questioning in the lower chamber.

Other Agencies Who Got Summoned

Aside from the aforementioned agencies, the lawmakers also summoned the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali, the Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation Fiscal Allocation Commission, Elias Mbam; the Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, Sarki Auwalu; and the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, Uche Orji.

Also on the summoned list include the Managing Director, Nigerian LNG Limited, Tony Attah; the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Abdulkadir Saidu; managements of SURE-P and Federal Account Allocation Committee; permanent secretaries of Federal Ministries of Finance, Solid Minerals and Steel Development and the Director-General, Mining Cadastral Office, Obadiah Nkom.

The management of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme were also summoned to appear before the House Committee on Public Accounts. The empowerment programme was created to re-invest savings from the removal of petrol subsidy in critical infrastructure and social safety net programmes. The programme was created in 2012 by the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration.

House Of Representatives Conducting Investigation

The summons was issued during an investigative hearing on the outstanding audit queries raised by the auditor-general. The summon followed the defense of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, who responded to queries issued by the auditor-general after the audit of Idris' office.

Prior to Idris' defense at the hearing, the Chairman of the committee, Wole Oke, had told Idris that, “Let me quickly recap our engagement with you (accountant-general); we considered the Auditor-General of the Federation’s query on the accounts of your office and that of the Federation. That of the federal account, we have 2014 before us. Our record shows that some of the queries from 2007 to 2014 have not been answered.

“From 2014, we have some queries that have to do with your office here and we have those that have to do with some other agencies of government, like the NNPC, DPR, CBN, FIRS, Customs, SURE-P, Ministry of Finance, FAAC, NSWF, Ministry of Solid Minerals, Mining Cadastral Office, NLNG and PPPRA.

“You have to appear with these agencies and we don’t want to ambush anybody. Clerk, please convey this list to the Accountant-General of the Federation and list all the issues. Similarly, write all these agencies and convey all the queries to them; let them be aware of all the queries and issues. We will then fix a date for these agencies to come and appear with the Accountant-General of the Federation.

“Similarly, we shall be publishing all the issues in three national dailies. Nigerians deserve to know what has happened to their resources.”