70 MDAs failed to account for N455bn in 2019 – Report

A report by the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI) says 70 federal ministries, departments and agencies could not account for N455bn of the N2.2trn released to them in 2019.

At a virtual press briefing Monday, Executive Director, PLSI, Olusegun Elemo, cited the report of the Auditor-General for the Federation report released last November.

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He said: “Government institutions covered in PLSI’s analysis include the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, which was unable to account for N17.7bn, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with N60.6bn not accounted for, the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing yet to account for N1.2bn, the Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority Owerri with N5.85bn, the Bank of Agriculture with N350m, the Code of Conduct Tribunal with N516.5m, the Council for Legal Education (Nigeria Law School) with N4.4bn, the Department of Petroleum Resources with N275.6m, the Federal Capital Territory Administration with N5.1bn and 61 other agencies of government. “In analyzing the 2019 Audit Report of the Federation, we linked government agencies’ budgetary provisions in 2019 to actual funds released and provided insight into the proportion of funds released that have not been accounted for by 70 ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government. 

“The ball is now in the court of the National Assembly and its Committees on Public Accounts to ensure everyone queried in the report of the Auditor-General are made to respond to such queries and make sure missing public funds are recovered back to government treasury”.

Elemo flayed the federal government’s refusal to enact a new audit legal framework to strengthen the Office of the Audit-General for the Federation and enhance the fight against corruption. 

“The Buhari administration should cease relying on the 1956 Audit Ordinance Act and take a cue from subnational governments in the country many of which enacted progressive audit legal frameworks between June and December 2021.”