By By Our Correspondent

Auditor-General for the Federation has raised concerns over the disbursement of N33.75 billion in cash transfers to more than 3.29 million households across 35 states in 2023, saying available records were insufficient to establish that the funds reached legitimate beneficiaries.
The concern is contained in the 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, which examined transactions of the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO), Abuja, for the 2023 financial year.
According to the report, electronic payments totalling N33.751 billion were made to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries captured in the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register.
However, auditors said they could not independently confirm the identities of the recipients because the payment vouchers did not contain complete beneficiary information.
They also said documents required to reconcile the disbursements with the official beneficiary registers were not made available for examination.
A key concern raised by the audit team was the failure of the NCTO to produce a Remita statement showing the beneficiaries who actually received the payments and enabling the auditors to compare them with those listed in the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register.
“This hindered the authentication of the payments and made it difficult to ascertain whether the beneficiaries who received the funds were genuine,” the auditors said.
The report further disclosed that repeated attempts by the audit team to obtain the Remita records from the cash transfer office were unsuccessful.
“All efforts to obtain access to the REMITA statement were obstructed and denied by NCTO accounts staff, thereby frustrating the audit process,” the report stated.
The auditors warned that the absence of adequate supporting documentation exposed the government to the risk of making payments to ineligible or fictitious beneficiaries, potentially resulting in the loss of public funds.
They also faulted the management of the NCTO for failing to respond to the audit query, noting that the findings would remain outstanding until the recommended corrective measures were implemented.
Consequently, the Auditor-General recommended that the official responsible for managing the national cash transfer programme should appear before the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly to account for the N33.75 billion and provide evidence that the funds were received by the intended beneficiaries.
The audit office further recommended that any portion of the funds that could not be satisfactorily accounted for should be recovered and paid back into the national treasury.
It also called for documentary evidence confirming beneficiaries’ receipt of the funds to be submitted to the Public Accounts Committee.
The auditors warned that failure to produce the requested records should attract sanctions for irregular payments in accordance with paragraph 3106 of the Financial Regulations, 2009.
According to the report, the lapses in the disbursement process contravened provisions of the Financial Regulations governing public expenditure and documentation.
The audit team cited paragraph 613, which requires paying officers to ensure that recipients of public funds are authorised beneficiaries and, where necessary, provide proof of identity.
It also referred to paragraph 603(i), which requires payment vouchers to contain full details of transactions and relevant supporting documents to facilitate proper verification.
The N33.75 billion cash-transfer query was one of eight audit queries raised against the NCTO, covering transactions involving billions of naira and weaknesses in the office’s internal control framework.
The wider audit report also identified other financial management shortcomings across federal institutions, including payments made without adequate supporting documents, unretired cash advances, unremitted revenues and contracts awarded in breach of established procedures.