The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday lamented that that only 10% of all existing parastatals of the federal government have submitted their audited reports to the Red Chamber for consideration. The disclosure was made in a report of the Committee on Public Accounts on the status of compliance of parastatals in submission of audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation brought to the floor by Senator Matthew Urhoghide.
Reacting to the report, the Senate President, ukola Saraki commended the committee for coming up with such an important report and assured that the Senate would take necessary action to address the issue. He lamented that the development was impacting negatively on the ongoing fight against corruption.
We can now see that when they keep on saying that we are not making much progress in the fight against corruption, it is because of the fundamental issues, they are right, the foundation is still very weak. If we have 497 parastatals and only 47 have sent their audited reports, I think there is a serious problem. Now, we find out that the agencies that are even meant to supervise are part of those who have not sent in their audit reports.
Now, we have taken a resolution here today to say that unless the remaining agencies do that, their budgets for 2018 is withheld. Therefore, let us remember that when we are passing the 2018 budget, the committees that are presenting the reports of the parastatals should please confirm to us whether they have complied with the auditor's report.
In the mean time, we will make sure that we also communicate to the Secretary of the Government of the Federation to ensure that all theses parastatals get their accounts audited and submitted. I thank you for this report, it will go a long way in us continue to support the Executive in the fight against corruption,” he added.
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