The Management of the National Assembly as well as the National Assembly Service Commission have been indicted by the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF), for an unexplained N9.424 billion expenditure embarked on in the financial year of 2019.
In five separate audit queries the House of Representatives was credited with about N5.521 billion; in seven audit queries, the Senate was credited with N3.595 billion; and the National Assembly Service Commission was credited with N307.676 million in two audit queries.
The audit queries were included in the annual report of the Auditor General for the Federation on non-compliance/internal control weaknesses issues in departments, Ministries and agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for the year, which ended on the 31st of December, 2019.
The Report with reference number (AuGF/AR.2019/02) was addressed to the Clerk of the National Assembly and dated September 15, 2021, and signed by Adolphus Aghughu, the Auditor General of the Federation.
The report stated that the members of the House of Representatives were granted N2.550 billion as running cost from July to December 2019, and there was no evidence provided to state what the money was used for, nor was the money ever retired.
It also stated that 59 staff of the House were given N258 million, and two staff were also given N107.912 million for the maintenance and repairs of unspecified residential quarters, yet the government was denied of the statutory withholding Tax and Value added Tax amounting to 10,791,296 if the work was awarded to contractors.
The report also stated that between February and December 2019, N1,594,807,097.83 was remunerated to revenue authorities as Car loan(5 members) PAYE (6 members) and Housing loan (6 members), yet no acknowledgement receipts were received from relevant revenue authorities.
The report also queried 1,010,598,610.97 paid from the House of Representatives salary account without the payment vouchers which are required by law, while asking that the Clerk to the National Assembly give explanation for the irregularities, and ensure that the amount in question is refunded to the government treasury.
The National Assembly Service Commission was indicted for failing to retire about N31.927 million cash paid in advance to 59 staff of the commission and for failing to pay one per cent stamp duty of N276, 749,014.68.
“The sum of N219,645,567.08 was deducted from 107 Senators’ salary arrears between July and December 2019 as housing loans, and there was no evidence to show that the above amount was remitted to the Treasury.” The report said
It also noted that N176.267 million and N123.320 million deducted from the arrears of senator salary between July and December 2019 as PAYE and vehicle loans from the salaries of staff were remitted to the proper authorities.
According to the report, N277.411 million removed as WHT and VAT from services rendered were not remitted to the FIRS, and payment vouchers were not presented by the Clerk’s office of N1,718,130,630.24 for audit verification.
N657.757 million paid in 16 payment vouchers for the supply of office equipment and vehicles, were not cleared as required by law by the internal audit before payments were made, and an additional N423.370 million was paid for utility vehicle supply and production of logo of the National Assembly between the month of August and the month of November 2019 from the capital account and no relevant document was provided.
The Clerk, Amos Ojo, has however been summoned by the House Committee on Public Account to appear before it in order to respond to the queries.