… orders Auditor – General to submit accounts

By Gabriel Jonah, Abuja

Members of the House of Representatives will next week Tuesday grill the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF), Aldophus Aghughu on the subsidy payments by the Nigerian National Petroleum Limited

Consequently, the house has directed the AGF to appear before its ad-hoc committee investigating the petroleum subsidy regime in Nigeria from 2013 – 2020.

The AGF is to provide documentary evidences on the audit carried out on the funds used by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited for the payment of fuel subsidy during the period.

The lawmakers also directed the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) to provide relevant financial transactions on the fuel subsidy within the period under review.

Ibrahim Aliyu, the chairman of the committee gave the directives at the resumed hearing of the panel after scrutiny of documents submitted by Okolieaboh Sylvia, the acting AGF.

Aliyu said, the acting AGF who was represented by
Mohammed Saleh, the director of federation accounts, office of the Accountant General, must appear on September 8, 2022 to address the issues being probed by the committee.

The committee’s chairman reiterated that the House had mandated it to ensure effectiveness of the fuel subsidy regime, scrutinise payment to petroleum marketers which it will carry out effectively.

Isiaka Ibrahim, a member of the committee in his intervention tasked the Accountant General of the Federation on the need to have an independent monitoring mechanism to verify the authenticity of the transactions presentation by other agencies.

The lawmaker also stressed the need for the office of the Accountant General of the Federation to ensure due diligence, by verifying the transaction documents submitted by all government agencies in line with its statutory functions