The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has summoned Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) over the audit query on the N78.761 billion extra-budgetary expenditures on salaries and wages paid in 2020 fiscal year.
The audit query on the N78,761,272,804.54 overpayment salaries and wages was contained in the audit query issued by the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (oAuGF) on Non-compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government for the year ended 31st December 2020.
According to the report, "Paragraph 417 of the Financial Regulations (FR)2009 states 'Expenditure shall strictly be classified in accordance with the Estimates, and votes must be applied only to the purpose for which the money is provided. Expenditure incorrectly charged to a vote should be disallowed.'
"Furthermore, paragraph 301 of the FR 2009 states 'The Annual Estimates and Appropriation Act are instruments used to limit and arrange the disbursement of the funds of the Federal Government. No expenditure may be incurred except on the authority of a warrant issued by the Minister of Finance. No expenditure may be incurred by any officer on any service, whether or not included in the Estimates until he has received the authority to do so in accordance with one of the following provisions in these rules and regulations.
"'Any officer controlling a vote, or part thereof, who incurs expenditure without such authority does so on his sole responsibility and will consequently be held personally responsible for his actions.'
"In addition, paragraph 313 of the FR 2009 stipulates that no expenditure on any sub-head of the Recurrent Estimates in excess of the provision in the approved estimates or Supplementary Estimates may be authorized by any officer controlling a vote, without approval of the National Assembly. Such approval will be sought by means of an application for supplementary provisions or virement.
"Audit observed from the review of the Consolidated Statement of Financial Performance and Note 13 (Salanes and Wages) to the FGN CFS that: 106 MDA exceeded their Personnel Costs budget by N78,761,272,804 54.
"The total expenditures of the 106 MDA was N882,896.536,645.71 while the total budget was N804,135,263,841.17, hence the reported extra-budgetary expenditure."
The oAuGF further observed that: "No information was disclosed thereon in respect to the authorization of the expenditure by way of either supplementary appropriation or virement upon which the Personnel budget was exceeded."
To this end, oAuGF submitted that the "above anomalies could be attributed to weaknesses in the internal control system surrounding the budgetary and accounting processes of MDA."
According to the oAuGF report, the associated risks to the above infraction, include: "Misuse of financial resources", as well as "Misappropriation of funds."
In its Management's Response, however, AGF attributed the extra-budgetary expenditures was "as a result of under budgeting, AIE is often provided to redress the shortfalls.
AGF also informed oAuGF of its plans to write letters to all the affected MDAs but added that 'some first line charge MDAs without budget will be adjusted with their newly submitted budget now" as well as Service wide vote.
After the review of the AGF's management response, oAuGF recommended that: "The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) should be requested to: ensure that MDA comply with the Appropriation Act as it relates to their personnel costs.
"Furnish the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly with the approvals for the N78,761,272.804.54 excess expenditure above appropriation.
"Otherwise, sanctions relating to gross misconduct specified in paragraph 3129 of the Financial Regulations should apply to the Accounting Officers of the affected MDAs."
In tandem with its procedures, the House Committee on Public Accounts chaired by Hon. Bamidele Salam is expected to invite the AGF to provide relevant documents on the N78,761,272.804.54 extra-budgetary expenditures on salaries and wages.
