LEGISLATURE 13/10/2023
N26trn Financial Statement Signed Without Finance Minister’s Knowledge – Senate
Members of the Senate Public Account Committee were shocked following the revelation that the former accountant-general of the federation (AGF) in 2019, Ahmed Idris, signed the financial statement of N26 trillion without the knowledge of the then finance minister, Ahmed Zainab.
Idris was the AGF when the financial statement was signed without the finance minister.
The total federal government Financial Liabilities for 2019 was N26.2 trillion.
The shocking revelation came during consideration of the 2019 nation’s Financial statement submitted to the Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC), Chaired by Senator Ahmed Wadada.
The report was submitted by the Auditor General of the Federation.
The query reads, “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, component that carries the approval of the CFS contrary to the extant regulation and
“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.”
The chairman of the committee who was disturbed about the issue raised in the Auditor General report asked the Accountant General of the Federal to respond to the allegation.
But, the Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Toyin Madein said she was not the accountant General of the Federation at the time of signing of the financial statement.
According to her, she was not the Accountant General at the time of signing the financial statement.
It was learnt that the reason for the introduction of co-signing of the financial statement was to ensure proper check .