ABUJA – The House of Representatives has summoned the management of the Oil and Gas free Zone Authority over inability of the agent to submit its audited accounts to the Auditor General of the Federation for vetting.
This decision became necessary when the Management of the Agency led by its head of Finance and Administration Mr Simon Akpadaka, appeared before
House Committee on Public Accounts during the resumed Public hearing on refusal of Non-Treasury Funded and Partially Funded Agencies, were unable to render their Audited Accounts covering the period 2014 till date to the Auditor-General of the Federation .
In his defence, Mr Akpadaka told the Committee that the Agency had submitted both the 2014 and 2015 audited accounts to the AGF and only remained those of the 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively due to the change of management.
The Committee however rejected the submission and directed the management of the Agency to appear before it to explain why it should not be sanctioned for flouting financial regulations.
The Chairman of the Committee. Hon Oluwole Oke, who was displeased over this development said that this was a serious breach of financial regulations, for a prime government agency that had foreign connection not to render accounts as at when due
” The management should appear before us to explain to Nigerians why they refused to render the accounts of their stewardship , is this how they will pay back the Mr President who appointed them to serve by not rendering accounts of funds in their custody, this is not acceptable to us as Parliament
“We are going to investigate the Agency and those found culpable for the delay would be recommended to the appropriate authorities for severe sanctions to serve as deterrent to others.
In a related development, the Committee also ordered the management of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, to appear before it on February 21 to explain the rationale behind the late submission of the Agency’s audited accounts under the period under review.
