By Israel Ajenu
The House of Representatives, yesterday, mandated the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mr. Nyesom Wike, to urgently appoint a substantive Auditor-General for the area councils, in line with the provision of the law.
This was sequel to a resolution passed at the resumed hearing of the Public Accounts Committee during which the committee observed that the vacuum had stalled the signing and transmission of reports of audited accounts to it as enshrined in the constitution.
While taking a presentation from the Acting Auditor General for the Area Councils, Mr. Abdullahi Ibn Salihu, the chairman of the committee, Bamidele Salam, observed that the issue needed their intervention, prompting a motion to be moved to that effect.
Salam said: “Colleagues, I think we should also step into this. Like I said, when we resumed in October 2023, the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation in Nigeria was vacant for about two years.
‘’The former President, Muhammadu Buhari, refused to make an appointment. And so, audit reports were not submitted. So, when we came in, myself and the Senate counterpart decided to write letters to the President and make some advocacy upon which a substantive accountant-general was appointed.
“If they have the same case, I think we will also need to step in, so we can call on the minister. We may need to write to him and invite him. Maybe, he has reasons appointment has not been made. I think we should. We should actually have a resolution on this also. “
The motion, moved by Obordor Mitema, and seconded by Usman Bala, was unanimously adopted by members.
Fielding questions from the committee on area councils financial report earlier, Abdullahi explained that most of the infractions noted were committed in the earlier administrations since he is barely 6-months in office in acting capacity.
Issues identified as infractions included non-submission of audited financial reports from 2023-2024; non-remittance of pension deductions to the Pension Commission, PENCOM, and non-submission of the available audited reports to the committee.
Billy Osawaru in his contribution, urged the committee to deploy the full weight of the law on the office of the Auditor General for all the infractions committed, insisting that such things must not be allowed to continue.
Meanwhile, a 5-member sub-committee, chaired by Tochukwu Okere, was put in place to thoroughly investigate the matters and make recommendations.
Other members of the sub-committee include Ajiya Abdulrahman; Mandara Usman; Mauruff Adebayo and Mohammed Bargaja.
