The 2015 annual audit report on the Federation Account has indicted the office of Accountant General of the Federation, OAGF, over alleged delays that kept the submission behind schedule for several months.
But, the OAGF on Tuesday exonerated itself of any blame, saying all documents required for the audit were provided, despite having to work manually on the accounts of over 900 ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs.
The 656-page report signed by the Auditor-General for the Federation, AuGF, Anthony Ayine, and published last month, blamed the OAGF for the delay and some of the discrepancies in the accounts as a result of its refusal to provide vital documents required for the audit.
Of particular concern was the inability to provide records covering about N2.98 billion in the Integrated Payroll & Personnel Information, IPPIS, operation transaction accounts.
IPPIS is an IT-based system that captures the salaries and remunerations of the entire personnel on the federal government payroll.
Also affected was the account of the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, GIFMIS, an IT-based system for budget management and accounting of all public expenditures.
The AuGF said in the report that the OAGF failed to produce for audit, vital documents needed to audit the IPPIS operations transactions account between January 1 and December 31, 2015.
“The Bank Statements, Cash Book, Mandates and Statement of Affairs of IPPIS Operation Transaction Account in CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria), were not provided for audit, in spite of repeated demands, except the last page of the bank statement showing the closing balance of N2,978,801,068.64 as at 31st December 2015,” the AuGF said in its final report.
“The inability to produce these documents, despite official requests vide the letters Reference No OAuGF/TAD/VOL.1/166 dated 16th August, 2016, and Reference No OAuGF/TAD/VOL.1/169 dated 25th August, 2016, has denied the audit team in forming opinion about the true position of the operation of the Account,’ he added.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt the report was published several months behind schedule due to several observed discrepancies in financial statements from the OAGF for the year.
