The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has commenced probe into alleged missing N14.8billion from the coffers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
The committee also has the mandate to investigate circumstances leading to the improper audit of the NCS accounts for several years.
This follows the outcome of a public hearing held by the committee on Monday after a query by the Office of the Auditor-General.
The Committee on Public Accounts is investigating series of audit queries raised against the Service between 2013 and 2014 financial years.
Speaking during the public hearing, the Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Ali disclosed that the organisation’s account had not been audited by external auditors for years as there was no approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to engage their services.
Ali, who was represented by an officer in the finance department, one S.I. Ibrahim, said, “I want to tell this honourable Committee that as we speak, the Service has no audited accounts because we have no approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to engage external auditors.”
According to him, prior to the introduction of the Treasury Single Accounts (TSA), 28 Commercial banks were collecting revues on behalf of the Service.
Source: Ships & Ports
