Senate Wants Federation Account Audited

  •Probes NNPC, NEMA, UBE Accounts Too

From ADEMOLA ADEDEJI, Abuja

The Senate Committee on Public Account has directed the Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr Roberts Edjenavi to compile and submit the reports of all inflows and outflows from the federation account in the current year.
This, according to the chairman of the committee, Senator Ahmed Lawal, was necessary to determine the performance of the 2008 budget even as the fiscal year enters its fourth and final lap.
Similarly, the Committee also directed the Auditor-General to scrutinize the accounts of some agencies such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Universal Basic Education (UBE), and the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) and submit the report of its findings to the National Assembly before the end of the month.
Briefing journalists in Abuja yesterday, Senator Lawal (Yobe State) said the committee has been looking into the books of the agencies which include the Immigration and Customs to determine how much they have raked in into the federation account since year 2000 and know how such accruals have been expended.
His words, “Presently we have been looking into the books of all the States Universal Basic Education, we have requested   the Auditor-General of the Federation to audit the federation account, we want to see all the inflows and all the outflows  for funds or resources, be it customs, immigrations and how the monies have gone out.
“When he submits his report to us on the inflows and monies that go out of the federation account, then we will be able to know how much has the customs got in  2000 for example, and how much was given to them, how much the NNPC got, how much is the sum total of monies into the federation account, how much was distributed, how much each organization got and the moment we are able to get this report from the Auditor General we can now move ahead with our investigations.
The Committee Chairman also said, “we are going to investigate the UBE across the states and the Federal Capital Territory and we intend to travel to the states to see what they have done with the funds, to see some of the projects they have done, we will do more because we have asked for example, NEMA, FERMA and so many others I can not remember to give us up to date audited accounts and this will give us an opportunity to see whether NEMA, which collects a lot of monies from the ecological funds has used the monies judiciously .
“We want to know how much has come in and how much they have expended and how effective and well it has worked,” he said.