60 MDAs Indicted Over N4trn Non-Remittance

The Auditor
General of the Federation (AGoF) in its report, has disclosed a short-changed
of the nation to the tune of over N4 trillion over a seven-year period by
various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

A 399-page audit , 93 out of 108 MDAs
failed to disclose the nature of accounts with closing balances totalling
N422,374,981,449.18 in 2009 fiscal year, while the sum of N22,941,514,567,
being “cash held from external loans,” had no comparative figure.

The AGF, Mr Samuel Ukura, signed the
399-page audit report, which covers the accounts of the Federal Government for
2009 and detailed how the Consolidated Revenue Account recorded a shortfall sum
of N254, 157,683,917.45; shortfall of N267, 674,270,493.54 in the external loan
out of N582, 621,480,000 obtained by Fund Departments and $200 million transfer
from JP Morgan, which was omitted from the Consolidated Account as of August
13, 2009.

According to the report, the sum of
N214,826,243,694 accrued into sinking fund, interest due on floatation of
bonds, among others were unknown, while N524,372,523,275.79 extracted balances
on capital accounts of 185 MDAs had not been remitted into the Consolidated
Revenue Fund.

The report also showed that the sum of
N109,449,999,997 was paid from Consolidate revenue Fund accounts into
retirement benefit bond redemption fund from 2006 to 2009 without evidence of
investments, as provided in Section 29(1) of the 2004 Pension Reform Act, which
requires the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to estab-lish, invest and manage the
fund.

Another issue raised by the report was
the non-repayment of sum of N306,538,058,709.32, out of which N149,965,780,369
loans and cumulative interests for 2009 fiscal year owed by 18 MDAs to various
companies; N7,291,336,930.09 principal loans and N1,096,183,863 cumulative
interests owed by Federal Housing Authority (FHA) since 2002.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC),
Chairman Hon. Solomon Adeola disclosed that the committee would soon lay the 1,
200-page report on the investigation of the 2003-2009 AGF’s report before the
House.

The PAC is equally probing the
operation of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The committee disclosed that LNG
has not remitted revenue into government coffers for seven years.

He said: “On the issue of LNG, you will
agree that the only thing that constitutes revenue today aside taxes is oil.
There is nowhere in the budget where it is stated that revenue from gas.