The Auditor-General for the Federation, Aghughu Adolphus, has submitted the Annual Report on the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Consolidated Financial Statements (CFS) for the year ended 31st December, 2019 to the National Assembly.
The submission of the financial statement to the Legislature is in compliance with Section 85(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) which states that “the Auditor-General shall, within ninety days of receipt of the Accountant-General’s financial statement, submit his reports under this section to each House of the National Assembly and each House shall cause the reports to be considered by a committee of the House of the National Assembly responsible for public accounts.”
While submitting the statement, the AuGF was quoted in a statement by the Head, Press Unit, of thehis Office, Eme Ika Ika Oqua, as saying that he has taken into account financing frameworks in the compilation of the report, listing its components as the Consolidated Statement of Financial Position, Consolidated Statement of Financial Performance, Consolidated Statement of Changes in Net Assets/Equity, Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows, Consolidated Statement of Comparison of Budget and Actual, and Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, including a Summary of Significant Accounting Policies.
On some of the challenges being faced by his office in its efforts to perform its constitutional responsibilities, Adolphus identified the absence of Federal Audit Service Law to enable the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation offer the country the expected effective leadership to public sector auditing at a time when almost all states in Nigeria now have State Audit Service Laws as basis for sustainability of states’ fiscal transparency and accountability; gross under funding; depleted workforce-operating SBOs with 2 or 3 Officers; office accommodation, especially for Lagos SBO, and insecurity while on fieldwork of the workforce as major ones.
In his remarks while receiving the report, the Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly (DCNA), Hon. Bala Yabani, who represented the Clerk of the National Assembly, commended the AuGF for his commitment to his office’s statutory mandate.
He described the submission of the reports before the 90 days as desirable for the nation’s fiscal efficiency, assuring that the report would guide lawmakers in holding public office holders accountable.
It would be recalled that that the AuGF submitted the Annual Report on the Federal Government of Nigeria Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended 31st December, 2018 on the 25th of March 2021, to the clerk of the National Assembly, exactly one month of his appointment as the substantive Auditor General of the Federation.
