...FG to publish COVID-19 spending report

The Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF), Mr. Anthony Ayine, has said a preliminary audit report on COVID-19 spending by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 will be released this week.

He disclosed this when he received an award of excellence from the Conference of Auditors-General of Local Governments in Abuja.

“We are about issuing the first interim report on the COVID-19 expense report. Hopefully by next week, the first interim report should be published.

“We will be issuing quarterly reports. The first report will be from when the PTF was established up to 30th June 2020,” he told journalists at the sidelines of the award,” he assured adding that when the report is submitted to the National Assembly, it will be publicly released too.

He, however, could not confirm the N1.22 trillion unremitted funds operating surpluses by Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs) recently uncovered by auditors at the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC). “I won’t be able to confirm that unless I have the details,” he stated.

He said his agency had reported non-deductions, especially in withholding tax and Value-Added Tax (VAT) and also in some cases, unremitted revenue.”

Presenting the award, the Chairman of the Conference of Auditors-General of Local Governments, Mr. Atiku Musa, said the AuGF has institutionalized the statutory Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) comparable to the best in the world.

“No wonder we have been able to restructure the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation so much that you introduced professionalism and attracted foreign support to create an academy where staff are groomed to tackle emerging issues in the audit of public funds,” he said.