By Chukwudi Obasi, Abuja
The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives has expressed concern about the low implementation of the capital component of the 2024 budget.
This was as the Accountant General of the Federation, Dr Shakirat Madein, appeared before the Committee for an interactive engagement yesterday.
The Committee, led by Bamidele Salam, was worried when the Accountant General put the budget’s implementation level at 25 percent.
It was observed that this did not help attain the desired economic growth.
This came as the Committee charged Madein with submitting the 2022 consolidated financial statement of the Federal Government to the Auditor General of the Federation in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 constitution.
Salam said it was regrettable that, according to recent studies conducted in Kenya, Ghana, and Rwanda, Nigeria is still lagging behind in submitting and considering audit reports largely due to the non-submission of financial statements by the Accountant-General’s office as required by law.
While considering the Accountant General’s submissions on the low revenue remittances by many Government-Owned Enterprises, the PAC Chairman said stricter measures were needed to block revenue leakages through process automation and regular audit exercises.
The House Committee also asked the Accountant General, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Interior to immediately resolve all outstanding issues regarding the non-automation of revenue collections from foreign missions to ensure transparency and accountability in the process.
The committee Chairman disclosed that the 2021 Auditor-General’s 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.
Earlier in her speech, the Accountant General of the Federation attributed the delay in submitting the consolidated financial statement to a lack of sufficient data on government revenue from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
While assuring that efforts are advanced to get the CBN to submit the necessary information, the Accountant General committed to concluding the exercise within two months.
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 have been reviewed and are only awaiting the approval of the Federal Executive Council to become operational.
