"Investigation by the audit firm revealed that N50 million loan was
written off the books of National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP),
Federal Ministry of Agriculture and to some Federal Government staff,
without proper disclosure in the financial statement. Similarly, some
collecting agencies in NNPC and DPR did not remit any revenue into the
Federation revenue account for some months, neither was any explanation
given why those months recorded no revenue
Section 85 of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) mandates the
audit of all public accounts, which include the federation accounts and
accounts of all government parastatals. Subsection 2 of the same section
empowers the Auditor-General — or any person authorized by him — to
have access to all account records of the government.
In
accordance with these provisions, Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC), in
agreement with the Federal Government, conducts forensic audit and gives
its expert opinions on the Accounts of the Federation of Nigeria,
yearly.
SaharaReporters scrutinized the 2016 audit report, the
most recently available to the public, and highlighted few of the
auditor’s discoveries.
N4 trillion unremitted revenue
A
whooping sum of N4 trillion was, as of the time of preparing the report,
unremitted to the Federation Account by the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC).
“The total revenue unremitted as at 1st
January 2016 from amounts payable into the Federation Account by NNPC
was ₦3,878,955,039,855.73 [Three trillion, eight hundred and
seventy-eight billion, nine hundred and fifty-five million, thirty-nine
thousand and eight hundred and fifty-five naira].
“The sum of
N1,198,138,355,860.30 was due in revenue to the Federation Account out
of the total generated in 2016, however, NNPC paid the sum of
N1,000,545,058,966.2 resulting in an amount withheld of
N197,593,296,894.02. This brought the total amount withheld by NNPC from
the Federation Account as at 31 December 2016 to
N4,076,548,336,749.75.”
This act of under-remitting to the central account has been a year-on-year occurrence, according to the auditor.
Opaque record-keeping by NNPC
NNPC
also failed to clearly state exactly the quantity of crude oil lifted
or delivered to Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company (WRPC), and
Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical company (KRPC).
From the
examination of the Demestic Crude Oil Lifting sales profile, a total
crude oil lifting of 8,399,027 bbls with a total sales value of
$376,655,589.03 (N102, 659,577,632.16) was stated to have been lifted
jointly by these two companies.
However, the auditor held that
the failure to properly separate these deliveries and charge directly to
each company makes it difficult to reconcile and account for each
lifting.
Misappropriation of Ecological Fund
The
report revealed that funds made available for solving ecological
problems in the country were used for other unstated activities not
related to purposes for which the fund was set aside.
For
instance, over N28 billion, out of the N48,601,928,311.08 meant for
development of natural resources, was diverted to other projects.
Similarly, the Federal Government “borrowed” from these funds without
stating how it intended to pay back.
“We note that the various
withdrawals from Funds by the Federal Government are stated to be
borrowings. We further observed that the arrangements for the repayment
of these funds or borrowings are unclear. For example, the 2017 Budget
did not include any appropriations for the repayment of these
borrowings.”
N413 million unreturned imprest
At least, 59
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the government refused to
return a total sum of N413, 449,306.08 back to source.
This is
in contravention of the Financial Regulation (2009), which stipulates
that “all standing impress must be retired on or before the 31st
December of the financial year in which they were issued, while special
impress shall be retired immediately the reason for which they were
granted cease to exist”.
The auditor also added that no explanation whatsoever was provided for the unretired funds.
Nigeria lost N941 billion in uncollected revenues
The
financial document revealed that there was a reduction in revenue
collected across government agencies except from the Nigerian Customs
Service (NCS). The total sum of N941, 039, 251, 064 was reported
uncollected by Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Department of
Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the NNPC.
The report said: “The
NNPC revenue fell from N2,442,895,781,050.53 to N1,725,318,486,455.07 a
difference of N717,577,294,595.46 representing about 29% decrease, FIRS
revenue fell from N2,403,882,419,922.32 in 2015 to N2,320,485,354,727.58
a difference N83,397,065,164.74 representing a marginal 3.4% decrease
while that of DPR fell from N608,083,591,121.01 to N468,018,699,815.74 a
difference of N140,064,891,305.27 representing 23% decrease.”
N50 billion Disappeared
Investigation
by the audit firm revealed that N50 million loan was written off the
books of National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), Federal
Ministry of Agriculture and to some Federal Government staff, without
proper disclosure in the financial statement.
Similarly, some
collecting agencies in NNPC and DPR did not remit any revenue into the
Federation revenue account for some months, neither was any explanation
given why those months recorded no revenue.
Senate Staff Cashed in N747 million
Advance
payment of over N747 million given to staff of the Nigerian Senate for
procurement in 2016 had not been retired as of June 2017.
Also,
some staffers of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing
received cash advances to the tune of N26, 369, 523 which was not
retired at the end of the financial year. Rather than recover this fund,
new cash advances were granted the same officers yet to retire the
first cash advance received.
Same practice was reported at the
Bureau of Public Service Reform. Fifty-six members of staff received
advance cash of various sums, totaling N35, 209, 835 that went
unremitted at the end of the financial year.
Withdrawal from the federation account without approval
N409
billion was withdrawn from the federation account to set off external
debts owed by states and FCT, without the authorization from the
Auditor-General. This contravened Section 168 (1) 0f the constitution
that holds that “Where any payment falls to be made under this Part of
this Chapter, the amount payable shall be certified by the
Auditor-General for the Federation”.
The Accountant-General of
the federation was, however, requested to provide explanation for
non-compliance with Section 168(1) of the Constitution and ensure that
henceforth, no such off-set are made from the Federation Account without
the certification of the Auditor-General for the Federation in
compliance with the Constitution"
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