N2bn misapplied at National Assembly
Areport released by the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF) last week exposed a N2billion financial scandal in the National Assembly. The AuGF’s report said illegalities were perpetrated in 13 transactions carried out by various organs that include both chambers of the National Assembly, its management, the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) and the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS).
The report said the House of Representatives incurred the highest violation of N1.1billion. It was followed by the Management with an infraction of N347.8million. Other breaches of expenditure incurred include N246.5million by NILS; N205.7million by the Senate; N70million by legislative aides and N30million by NASC. At the House, the AuGF observed that contracts for the purchase of 48 utility vehicles were awarded to three contractors at N624million. However, records “showed that the supply of 14 units of these motor vehicles was not made”.
Also at the House, the Auditor-General said 50 cash advances amounting to N499.6 million were granted to staff to carry out various assignments. It was unbecoming that more than a year later when the audit report was being prepared, the advances were yet to be retired. The report said some of the vouchers were granted multiple advances without previous ones being retired. This violates Financial Regulations (FRs) which provide that no new advance shall be granted if the previous ones had not been retired.
For the Senate, the report said N186million meant for the payment of motor vehicle loan which was paid into a commercial bank account as indicated in the mandate was misapplied for other purposes such as organizing Senate Retreat and PreValedictory Session of the 7th Senate. The report said this action contravened FR 417, which stipulates that “votes must be applied only to the purpose for which money was provided”. A financial scandal involving N66million was also uncovered at the National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO). Audit of the personnel accounts of the legislative aides revealed that N78.5million was expended on the payment of overtime and special allowances to officials who are not legislative aides in November and December 2015.
Whereas NASC claimed to have remitted N17million as PAYE deductions to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), there was no evidence of this payment. And at the NILS, the report said the Institute used cheques to make payments for transactions amounting to N246million even though the federal government prohibits payments by cheque except in extreme circumstances. The AuGF’s 2015 annual report was laid on the Senate floor on Tuesday last week by Senate leader Senator Ahmad Lawan. Senate President Bukola Saraki referred it to Senate Committee on Public Accounts and gave it four weeks to look into the matter. These revelations came at a time the National Assembly is under increasing pressure to make its budget expenditure open. Details of the lawmakers’ annual budget of over $100 billion have remained undisclosed since 2010. Although the AuGF’s 2015 report is coming out late, a year after it was due for release, it is commendable. By now, it is expected the audit report for 2016 should have been released. While we encourage the AuGF’s office to release its annual audit report in good time, we also urge the Auditor-General to release the report in respect of all MDAs.
Management staffers of the National Assembly are supposed to be seasoned civil servants. However, misappropriation of N2billion isn’t a good reflection of their expertise. The fact that misapplication of funds freely characterized accounting procedures in the National Assembly without recourse to the FRs also depicts the failure of internal audit mechanism which should have checked many of the irregularities highlighted in the report. The Clerk to the National Assembly should comply with the Auditor-General’s request to recover all misapplied funds and return same to government treasury. Appropriate disciplinary measures must also be visited on those found to have flagrantly violated FRs. The Auditor-General should also is follow up and verify that the misapplied N2billion is speedily recovered.