The Nigerian House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has summoned the country’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments Otunba Niyi Adebayo to appear before it unfailingly on Friday to explain the refusal by the Standard Organization of Nigeria, SON to honor the committee invitation over its 2014-2019 audit report by the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation AuGF.
Chairman of the Committee Mr. Oluwole Oke, issued the invitation at an investigative hearing of the committee in which the SON was billed to appear on the refusal of the agency to render its yearly audited accounts to the AuGF office since 2014.
As the hearing commenced, the lawmaker called for the appearance of the Director-General DG of the SON or his representative to shed light on the contentious issue raised by the AuGF’s annual report but was absent and neither represented by any official of the agency.
He said “The key issue is that all the ministries and agencies render account to the AuGF annually. But in the case of the SON, they have failed in this regard.
This committee is investigating the audit queries by the Auditor-General of the Federation from 2014-2019″.
Mr. Oke further noted that sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) empowered the committee to summon and even arrest any top government official or those in the ministries, department and agencies that refused to honor the committee’s invitation.
Source: VON
