NDIC’s Account: House of Representatives sets to invite CBN Governor, Finance Minister

The House of Representatives through its Committee on Public Accounts is set to invite the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, as  the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation to render its audited accounts reputedly failed to render its account.
The house alleged the corporation had yet to tender 2017and 2018 accounts to the office.
The committee in the report issued a query against ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government as regards auditing  between 2014 and 2018, which has been laid before the House.
It partly read, “The committee cautioned the agency that the auditor-general could not have received and acknowledged draft reports from the corporation, but clean and signed copies.
“The MD explained that the delay in the submission occurred because there was no board in place during the period and they just had one in 2018, since 2014. He said he also made a case to the Ministry of Finance to constitute a board but all to no avail. The committee was saddened with this development.”
In its recommendation, the committee said, “The Honourable Minister of Finance is to appear to explain why the ministry did not set up an interim committee to approve the accounts for submission to the auditor-general. The committee is to conduct a project’s performance audit on NDIC.”
The committee slammed the former Managing Director, of NPA Hadiza Bala-Usman, for signing audit reports of the years she was not in charge of the Authority.
The report read, “The MD stated that she met a backlog of unaudited accounts when she assumed office in 2016 and worked assiduously to complete the 2013, 2014 and 2015 accounts, after making some necessary adjustments in the accounts based on mandatory requirements by the Financial Reporting Standard to meet IPSAS standards.
“She said 2017 and 2018 had been completed and approved by their board prior to its dissolution by the government and would submit the same to the new board….
“The 2013 – 2015 accounts were all signed by the present MD instead of the past Managing Directors for those periods. The committee frowned at this and placed the Authority on status enquiry.”
It also recommended that Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to explain the failure by the Nigeria Security Printing And Minting Plc to render its accounts at the appropriate time.