The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, on Wednesday, discovered that the accounts of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission has never been audited since it was established in 1993.

This was revealed at the investigative hearing by the committee on the audit queries issued against ministries, department and agencies of the Federal Government by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.

The Auditor General of the Federation had told the committee that it had no information in respect of the commission’s audited accounts.

The Auditor-General, who was represented by Maryam Ibrahim, said, “External auditors are supposed to audit them and then we have records of their audited accounts. But we do not have any record of this agency.”

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Members of the committee were miffed by the revelation, describing it as a gross misconduct for the commission not to have rendered its accounts in the 28 years of its existence.

Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, consequently, invited the Secretary to the Government of Federation, Head of Service of the Federation, Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Accountant General of the Federation and the Auditor General.

The committee also asked Acting Chairman of the NSIWC, Ekpo Nta, who appeared before the lawmakers on Wednesday, to reappear before it.

Oke said the committee needs to understand what the law says about the commission, stressing that law the should be respected.

Nta had told the committee that he assumed office in August 2019 and observed the situation then. He said during his investigation, he was informed it was due to shortage of staff and inadequate funding.

Nta, however, stated that all the auditing needs of the commission had always been incorporated in the Auditor General’s final report, which is presented to parliament.

He also noted that said the Accountant-General and the Auditor-General post their staff to the commission.

Nta said, “Incidentally, the commission is audited 100 per cent by the Office of the Auditor General and the Budget Office, in collaboration with the Accountant General’s office and the Audit Department of the Office of the SGF. We do not have external auditors. As a matter of fact, they used to post staff to our Audit (Department) to head the place until 2018. So, all our rendition and processes are domiciled with the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.”

Members of the committee, however, decried that the commission should not have abandoned such an important duty of rendering its account, while the Auditor-General cannot even raise queries on its finances.

Oke stated that the law mandates the Auditor General to conduct periodic checks on the books of the commission as the committee lacks the powers to audit it. He also noted that it is the commission’s duty to appoint an external auditor, which would be provided with the guidance of the Auditor-General.

Oke said, “This is a very serious issue. If this agency has been mismanaged since 1993, it has come to an end today. So, what we do is to invite the SGF, Head of Service, DG Budget, Accountant General of the Federation and Auditor General (of the Federation) and the Chairman, so they come and understand what the law says about the organisation and that the law of the land should be respected.

“It then means that the commission has never reported its financial dealings and if they did, the Auditor-General should have copies, because they are supposed to remit such information to the Auditor-General. This is a very gross issue that we need to

“The Commission’s Act is an establishment of the parliament and Section 9(2) of the Act provides that the commission shall keep proper accounts of its information in respect of each year and proper records in relation thereto, and shall cause its accounts to be audited not later than six months after the end of each year by auditors appointed from the list of auditors, not by the Auditor-General himself.”

Meanwhile, the House Ad Hoc Committee on Need to Investigate Executed, Funded and Repeated Capital Projects in the Appropriation Acts held its inaugural meeting on Wednesday, where it vowed to track such projects and report them to the appropriate authorities.

Chairman of the committee, Makki Abubakar, decried that there are many unexecuted and abandoned projects that are funded in the annual budgets, which are scattered across the country.

Abubakar disclosed that the committee would engage the services of consultants to help in tracking and aggregation of such projects.

A member of the committee, Francis Agbo, also decried the many duplicated projects across the country. He said the sad aspect is that the reports from Ministries, Departments and Agencies are different from what is on ground.

Agbo urged the committee to ensure that such projects are identified and and completed or revoked to prove that the parliament is working.

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