Reps Committee summon MDAs suspected of over-spending 2020 budgets

The House of representatives Committee on Public Accounts has summoned 256 Ministries, Departments and Agencies suspected to have over spent their overhead budgetary allocations in 2020.

Chairman of the Committee, Bamidele Salam said an accumulation of N284.3 billion naira was reviewed during an interactive session in Abuja on Thursday with the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, and the Auditor General of the Federation, Shaakaa Chira.

Investigation was prompted by the Auditor General’s report on over 800 MDAs for the year ending December 31, 2020.

In his remarks, the Committee Chairman said: “If the allegations of budgetary overspending is established as contained in the Auditor General’s report, it would amount to a gross infraction that may require a refund,”.

Mrs. Madein further clarified that when MDAs access funds from the Service Wide Vote, it does not reflect in their budget, and these extra-budgetary spending instances usually stem from activities not included in the initial budget.

The Committee expressed discontent, arguing that funds accessed from the Service Wide Vote or any source outside the budgetary allocation should first be appropriated by Parliament before disbursement.

Hon Salam further urged the executive arm of the government to expedite the full compilation of assets belonging to the Federal Government to facilitate potential foreign investment.

He advised the concerned MDAs to perfect their acts in ensuring timely preparation and presentation of audited reports, emphasizing that an up-to-date audited report reflects a nation’s financial discipline and readiness for global business.

Accountant General of the Federation stated that, “the consolidated financial statement of 2020 audited report has just been presented, and various issues have been identified in the financial statement as presented.”

He acknowledged that the issues revolved around non-compliance with the standards governing the preparation of financial statements as it related to the MDAs’ reports submitted and consolidated.

The Accountant General further noted that the adoption of the International Public Accounting Standards, initially done in 2016, experienced slowdowns in implementation due to various issues.

“When I read about the negative net asset aspect of the report, my understanding was that, we have our negative net asset of N33.3 trillion while the total asset is N10.1 trillion and total liabilities are N43.4 trillion. This is what resulted in the negative net asset of N33.3tn,” he explained.