Reps panel summons four ministers over ‘unaudited accounts’

A house of representatives committee has summoned four ministers over the alleged failure of their ministries and related agencies to audit their accounts.

The house committee on public accounts asked the ministers to appear before it after the office of the auditor-general of the federation indicted them of not submitting reports of the audited accounts.

The ministers summoned are Osagie Ehanire (health), Sabo Nanono (agriculture), Niyi Adebayo (trade and investment), Gbemisola Saraki (transportation [state]).

The house is investigating the “deliberate and reckless refusal” by some government agencies to render their audited accounts from 2014 to 2018.

Wole Oke, the committee chairman, told journalists at the weekend that some heads of agencies under the respective ministries have refused to honour the committee’s invitation.

He said the ministers and the agency heads must appear before the committee or be sanctioned.

The lawmaker added that the committee also placed at least seven agencies under status enquiry over their accounts and budget.

A status enquiry is a form of request made to a bank asking whether a customer is likely to meet specific financial commitments.

The organisations include the Nigeria Institute for International Affairs; the Nigeria Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency; the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council; Radiographers Registration Board, the Inter-Country Centre for Oral Health, Root Crop Research Institute, Umudike; the Nigeria Natural Medicine Agency and the Lake Chad Research institute.

He said the agencies are to appear before the committee with their immediate past management team, their annual budgets and audited accounts covering the period under investigation.