The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives has urged the Accountant General of the Federation, Mrs Shakirat Madein, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior to immediately resolve all outstanding issues on the non-automation of revenue collections from foreign missions in order to ensure transparency and accountability in the process.
The Chairman of the PAC, Bamidele Salam gave this charge when the Accountant General of the Federation, Mrs Shakirat Madein, appeared before the committee for an interactive engagement on Wednesday.
While considering the submissions of the Accountant General on the low revenue remittances by many Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs), Salam said there was a need for stricter measures to block revenue leakages through automation of processes and regular audit exercises.
The committee also expressed concerns at the low implementation of the capital component of the 2024 budget, which the Accountant General put the level of implementation at 25 per cent.
Salam observed that this was not helping the attainment of desired economic growth.
He, however, promised that the 2021 Auditors General Report, which was recently submitted to the National Assembly will receive accelerated consideration immediately after the passage of the 2024 Appropriation Bill currently before the House.
The committee chairman charged Mrs Madein with the need to submit the 2022 Consolidated financial statement of the Federal Government to the Auditor General of the Federation in line with the provisions of the 1999 constitution.
Salam said it was regrettable that from recent studies conducted in Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda, Nigeria is still lagging behind in the submission and consideration of audit reports largely due to the non-submission of financial statements by the Accountant Generals office as required by law.
Earlier in her speech, the Accountant General of the Federation, Mrs Madein attributed the delay in the submission of the consolidated financial statement to a lack of sufficient data on government revenue from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
While assuring that efforts are at an advanced stage to get the CBN to submit the necessary information, the Accountant General gave an undertaking to conclude the exercise within two months.
Dr Madein informed the committee of several initiatives of her office to strengthen existing regulations and initiate new ones to promote greater accountability in public expenditure management.
She assured that the Financial Regulations 2009 has been reviewed and only awaiting the approval of the Federal Executive Council to be operational.
