Audit Queries: Senate Threatens To Slash Allocations Of 100 MDAs
Written by Olarotimi Oshin on December 7, 2022
The Senate has threatened to slash the allocations of about 100 government establisments, comprising ministries, departments and agencies that failed to respond to the queries raised against them in a report by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan disclosed this after Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo) raised a point of order during plenary that agencies indicted in the audit report had refused to appear before his panel.
The lawmaker said sections 88 and 89 of the constitution empowered the parliament to summon federal government agencies to account for public funds they had spent and lamented that the agencies had vehemently refused to appear before his committee, saying the amounts involved were staggering. He, therefore, urged the Senate President to issue warrant of arrest to compel the agencies to appear before the Public Accounts Committee.Responding, Senate President gave the affected agencies one week ultimatum to appear before the committee or risk zero allocation in the 2023 budget.
