Senate threatens 450 agencies with zero allocation

No fewer than 450 federal agencies would be denied budgetary allocations this year if they fail to submit their audited accounts, the Senate said yesterday.

The resolution followed consideration and adoption of report of the committee on Public Accounts on the status of compliance of agencies on submission of audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.

Senate gave the agencies up to May to comply and submit their audited reports to the Auditor General of the Federation.

The Senate was told that out of the 447 federal agencies, 85 have never submitted audited accounts since their establishment.

An analysis of the report of the panel showed that 17 agencies including Debt Management Office (DMO), Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) were in arrears of between 6- 10 years in term of submission of audited accounts.

Some of the agencies affected are; Nigerian Ports of Authority (NPA), Nigerian Security Printing and Minting, Security and Exchange Commission, Petroleum Products and Pricing Regulations (PPPRA), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) among others.

Senate President Bukola Saraki expressed dismay that out of 497, only 47 have submitted audited accounts.

“We can now see that when they keep on saying that we are not making much progress in the fight against corruption, it’s because the fundamental issues, the foundation is still very weak,” he said.