The Senate has condemned what it described as the persistent refusal by certain federal government revenue-generating agencies, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to honor its invitations and respond to queries raised against them in the 2019 Audit report.

On Tuesday, Senator Ahmed Wadada Aliyu, representing Nasarawa West and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, expressed dissatisfaction and listed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Nigeria Police Force, and 12 other agencies that habitually ignore demands from the Red Chamber to appear and respond to audit queries raised by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.

Senator Wadada noted that the stance of these agencies could undermine the anti-corruption efforts and transparency initiatives of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.

He also listed the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (formerly DPR), and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment, among others.

Additional agencies include the FCT Internal Revenue Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Defence, and Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts further declared that henceforth, MDAs that habitually ignore committee invitations to respond to queries would have such queries sustained and reported to the Senate Plenary by the committee.

He said, “It is worth noting that the Committee began considering the Audit Report in October 2023, with the aim of presenting its findings to the Plenary.

“However, some agencies have willfully failed to honor invitations to defend their written responses to the audit queries submitted to the Committee Secretariat.

“Besides the demand for submission of written responses to audit queries, part of the Committee’s rules of engagement requires that Accounting Officers attend the Committee’s Public Hearing to answer questions arising from the analysis of their submissions, which in turn forms the basis for informed decisions by the Committee.

“The desire of the Public Accounts Committee to discharge its constitutional and legislative functions in a timely manner is being hampered by the evasive and negative actions of some CEOs or accounting officers of the concerned MDAs.

“The Committee is very displeased with the foot-dragging attitude of agencies that are legally required to respond to parliamentary invitations and account for their actions.

“The Committee has, over time, extended invitations to these agencies, providing them with ample opportunities to defend their queries.

However, for reasons best known to them, these agencies have chosen to disregard the invitations.

“Therefore, we, as a Committee, have resolved that going forward, the Senate Public Accounts Committee will proceed to consider their audit queries as contained in the Auditor-General’s Annual Report.

Any MDA that fails to honor invitations to respond and present its defense will have the Committee adopt the position of the Auditor.

“Additionally, this resolution will be incorporated into our rules of engagement if MDAs fail to improve their attendance at our invitations.”

He added that the “Committee is confident in the commitment of the present administration under the stewardship of His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to improve Nigeria.

However, with the attitude of the aforementioned Chief Executives, this will not be achievable unless and until all parties do the needful.” (Nigerian Tribune)

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