Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) maintained N4.973 trillion unsubstantiated balances in their accounting records in 2019, it was learnt yesterday.

The Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF), Adolphus Aghughu, announced this when he submitted the 2019 Audit Report to the National Assembly in Abuja.

Aghughu regretted that his office was beset by a plethora of challenges which militated against effective detection of financial improprieties and misappropriation of funds by government agencies.

The AuGF said the agency’s workers in Lagos were about to be evicted from their office accommodation due to litigation.

He said: “From the audit carried out on the 2019 Federal Government Consolidated Financial Statement, unsubstantiated balances amounting to N4.973 trillion were observed.

“The N4.973 trillion unsubstantiated balances are above the materiality level of N89.34 billion set for the audit.”

The AuGF explained that “in auditing, materiality means not just a quantified amount but the effect that amount will have in various contexts”.

He added: “During the auditing planning process, the auditor decides what the level of materiality will be, taking into account the entirety of the financial statements to be audited.”

Aghughu said following the discovery, all agencies involved in the infractions were issued queries.

The AuGF informed the Clerk to the National Assembly, Ojo Olatunde Amos, who was represented at the presentation ceremony by his deputy, Bala Yabani, that annual consolidated financial statements of the Federal Government would be expeditiously audited by his office as soon as they were made available by the Office of the AuGF.

(Text excluding headline courtesy The Nation)