Exactly 18 months past its statutory deadline, the Federal Government’s Consolidated Financial Statement for 2022 remains unfinished due to unresolved issues in reconciling the Consolidated Revenue Fund account and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
This was disclosed by the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Oluwatoyin Madein, during a House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee oversight visit to the Treasury House in Abuja on Wednesday.
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The reason for the delay was further reiterated in a press release issued by the director of press in the AGF’s office, Bawa Mokwa on Friday, as reported by The Punch.
According to the statement, the financial statements for 2020 and 2021 have been prepared and audited in collaboration with the Auditor-General of the Federation. However, the 2022 report remains a work in progress.
“It would have been completed but for problems we have regarding the reconciliation of the bank statement for the Consolidated Revenue Fund with the Central Bank of Nigeria,” the statement read.
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The Fiscal Responsibility Act requires the Federal Government’s financial statements to be published no later than six months after the end of the fiscal year. Here is an excerpt of the relevant section of the legislation:
The Federal Government shall publish their audited accounts not later than six months following the end of the financial year. Federal Government shall, not later than two years following the commencement of this Act and thereafter, not later than 7 months following the end of each financial year, consolidate and publish in the mass media its audited accounts for the previous year.
By implication, the 2022 report should have been completed by June 2023, as part of efforts to ensure fiscal transparency and accountability.
The Punch had earlier reported the House of Representative’s demand for the finalisation of the financial statements in compliance with statutory deadlines.
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Meanwhile, FIJ recently reported how the audit of the 2021 financial statement, which indicted several ministries, departments and agencies, was delayed by more than 31 months from the statutory deadline.
The same report flagged ministries, departments and agencies for spending N110 billion without budgetary appropriation. Another report showed that the NNPCL deducted N426 billion from federation revenue without authorisation.
The Federal Government is also notorious for delaying or withholding the publication of documents statutorily deemed relevant for public consumption.
The post FG’s 2022 Financial Statement Still Not Ready 18 Months After Deadline appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.