REVEALED: How Suspended Accountant General Shunned Minister, Signed N26tn Financial Statement

An audit report has shown how a former Accountant General of the Federation unilaterally signed the Federal Government’s 2019 financial statement of N26tn.

The revelation came during the consideration of the audit report by the Senate Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Senator Ahmed Wadada.

In a 2019 report submitted to the National Assembly, the Auditor-General of the Federation said the then Accountant General single-handedly signed the document without counter-signing by the then Minister of Finance, against financial regulation.

The office of the Auditor-General quoted provisions of the Financial Regulations to support its claim.

Paragraph 103 of the Financial Regulations states that: “The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria assigned to the Minister of Finance the responsibility for all financial business of the government of the federation, while Paragraph 105 of the FR empowers the Minister of Finance to issue, from time to time, financial regulations, which is of general applications to ministries, extra-ministerial offices and other arms of government.

“By implication, the Honorable Minister of Finance in Nigeria is the Chief Executive Officer on government financial matters.”

Ahmed Idris was the Accountant-General of the Federation at that time. He was suspended from the office over an allegation of financial malfeasance amounting to N109bn.

The audit report said, “The Accountant-General of the Federation was the only officer of the Federal Government of Nigeria that signed the consolidated statement of financial position without indicating his FRC of Nigeria registration number, a component that carries the approval of the CFS, contrary to the extant regulation.

“There was no signature with FRC of Nigeria registration number of the Honorable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning on the Consolidated Statement of Financial Position.

“The above anomalies could be attributed to weakness in the internal control system in the consolidation process.”

Responding to the report, the acting Accountant General of the Federation, Toyin Madein, said she was not the Accountant General at the time of signing the financial statement.