The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives, Honourable Oluwole Oke, has stated that no Corporation within the Nigerian business environment is exempted from being checked by the Auditor- General.
He was speaking with regard to the news that over N3 trn had been misappropriated by the NNPC and against the background of reports in the media that the accounts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have not been submitted for review by the Office of the Auditor- General of the Federation for several years.
“The Corporations are mandated by the Constitution to submit their accounts so audited by external auditors to the Auditor- General for review. The Auditor-General in turn engages consultants or their personnel to review the audited accounts submitted by these Corporations, and thereafter bring his opinion, his report before the parliament, the Committee Chairman said.
“So, if the Auditor-General has problem in conducting the periodic checks on the books of the Corporations,they should tell us. If they have problem of accessibility to the records of these Corporations, they should tell us.
“In any case, the Auditor-General is an independent one; they are under no one’s control except the parliament because this committee pursuant to Order 18 Rule 6 oversights the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.