Nigeria’s
finance minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Governor, Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, and the Director-General of
the Budget Office in the Presidency, Dr. Bright Okogwu, are scheduled to
appear today before the House of Representatives Public Accounts
Committee (PAC) to explain their alleged roles in withholding over N4
billion earmarked for the office of the Auditor-General of the
Federation (AGF).
The Solomon Olamilekan Adeola-led PAC said the allocation freeze had
grievously crippled the AGF’s constitutional role of auditing the 2012
budget.
The AGF, Mr. Samuel Ukura, told PAC that his office allocation to
audit the 2012 Budget is N5.2billion, but the Ministry of Finance had
released only N892.5million.
Ukura said there was zero allocation to his office in the 2013 Budget
to audit the federation account, another development Okonjo-Iweala, who
also doubles as Coordinating Minister for the Economy, is expected to
explain.
He also told the committee that his office managed to audit only 44
out 97 foreign missions in 2012 because of inadequate funds. “With the
meagre allocation to our office, we cannot even audit some ministries”,
he said.
PAC Chairman, Adeola (Lagos/ACN), insisted that financial autonomy for the auditor’s office was overdue.
Committee members took turns to comment on the matter. Pally Iriase
(Edo/ACN) said “If you look at this budget (of Auditor General), it
shows how unserious we are about tackling corruption in this
country.This budget ought to signpost our seriousness in tackling the
issue of corruption head-on, but the Ministry of Finance and the Budget
Office, in their own strange wisdom, have decided that the best thing to
do is to frustrate the office of the Auditor-General.”
On his part, Karimi Sunday (Kogi/PDP) said, “There is a continuous
attempt to frustrate and render the office of the Auditor-General
redundant. They (Ministry of Finance and Budget office) do not want the
office to do its work, but there is a need for this committee to do its
own work”.
The committee, however, deferred consideration of the sum of N1.6
billion as the committee’s budget in 2013 as proposed by the Ministry of
Finance.
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