Senate moves to suspend 444 parastatals’ budgets for non-submission of audit report

The Senate has resolved to suspend the budgetary provisions of 444 parastatals, which fail to comply with the constitutional requirement of auditing its account before the deadline of May 28 this year and having arrears of two years and above.

This is coming on the heels of disclosure that out of the 491 parastatals owned by the Federal Government, only 47 complied so far. Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, Matthew Urhoghide, stated this when it submitted its report on the status of compliance of parastatals’ submission of audited accounts to the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.

By the report, the auditor-general of the federation is vested with the powers to audit the public accounts of the federation and all offices and courts by the provisions of Section 85 (2) of the Constitution.

Also, the report clearly indicated that all the parastatals under the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have not from inception submitted any audited accounts as well as the federal-owned polytechnics.

Majority of the lawmakers, who spoke during the debate, affirmed that failure to submit audited accounts report by the agencies was criminal and constitutionally punishable.