From From Ndubuisi Orji, Abujai

House of Representatives, yesterday, resolved to investigate Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) over N526 billion and $21 billion loses.

The House mandated its Committee on Public Accounts to undertake the probe and report back to it within eight weeks for further legislative actions.

This was sequel to the adoption of a motion by Abdullahi Sa’ad Abdulkadir on the need to investigate the report of the auditor general of  the federation (AGF) on the accounting and financial infractions by government agencies.

Abdulkadir, in the motion, informed the House that the  AGF had raised several queries on the Federation Account, particularly covering from 2015 to 2017. The lawmaker noted that the queries bordered on revenue losses due to leakages, financial misapplication, misappropriation, under-reporting and falsification.

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According to him, the report “was corroborated by the Forensic Audit Report by KPMG that indicted some Federal Government agencies for losses of up to N526 billion and $21 billion.”

Abdulkadir added that “the losses were allegedly occasioned by an interplay of activities of persons, both in the public and private sectors of the economy, including multinational companies and the continued exploitation of Nigeria’s economy through the deployment of deceitful and irregular accounting practices, resulting in huge capital flight, deficit balances and a weakened economy.”

He contended that “Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution conferred on the legislature power to investigate with the aim of exposing corruption, inefficiency and blocking waste in the administration of public funds.”

The lawmaker argued “that if urgent steps are not taken to address those hydra-headed issues, they may lead to a total collapse of the economy with its attendant social and political crisis.”