The House of Representatives, the National Assembly's lower chamber, has failed to submit documentation proving how its members spent N2.5 billion in operating expenditures for the first six months of 2019.
In its 2019 audit report, obtained by SaharaReporters in September 2021, the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation questioned the Clerk of the House for failing to provide the documents and ordered it to refund the N2.5 billion because there was a risk of "diversion of public funds" by lawmakers.
"Auditor-General for the Federation's Annual Report on Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses Issues in Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for the Year Ended 31st December 2019," according to the audit report.
The OAUGF report said that if the unaccounted-for funds were not paid to the Nigerian government's treasury, the Clerk of the House should face consequences.
"The following observations were observed in the Federal House of Representatives of the National Assembly," the report said in part. THE HONOURABLE MEMBERS' UNRETIRED RUNNING COST (N2,550,000,000.00) "All standing impress must be retired on or before the 31st December of the financial year in which they are issued," says paragraph 1011(i) of the Financial Regulations, "while Special Impress should be withdrawn when the grounds for which they were granted cease to exist." The submission of vouchers and/or cash for the entire amount of the imprest will result in retirement."
"Audit found that: i. Between July and December 2019, the sum of N2,550,000,000.00 was granted to Honorable members as running costs, as shown below: North East, N187,000,000.00; South-South, N272,000,000.00; South East, N442,000,000.00; North Central, N391,000,000.00; South West, 629,000,000.00; and North West, 629,000,000.00."
There was no indication of what the monies were spent for, and despite queries, there was no retirement paperwork. The aforementioned irregularities might be attributable to flaws in the Federal House of Representatives' internal control mechanism. Loss of government finances is one of the risks. ii. Misappropriation of public monies
"The management was deafeningly silent. Recommendations: "The Clerk of the National Assembly is requested to provide reasons why running costs granted to Honourable members were not retired, recover unretired running costs of N2.5 billion and remit to the Treasury; ii. Forward evidence of remittance to the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committees; iv. Otherwise, apply sanctions relating to non-retirement of advances and imprest specified in paragraph 3124 of the Financial Regulations."
