N9.4 billion missing in National Assembly - Audit report

An audit report, the latest on the National
Assembly, has shown that the country’s
legislative body failed to explain what
happened to a total expenditure of over
N9.4 billion in 2014, according to a report
by Premium Times.
The report broke the money as including
N9.39 billion which had no documentary
evidence of being spent for anything, and
another N47 million that was supposed to
be returned to government coffers.
Under David Mark as president of the Senate,
the National Assembly could not account for
an amount
However, the audit report said only
N360,000 was returned.
The audit report was said to have been
submitted to the clerk to the National
Assembly in March 2016 as statutorily
provided, but its content was made public
recently by the office of the country’s
auditor-general.


It was learnt that the 2009-2014 report
indicted various government organisations
of failing to remit over N3 trillion into
government’s treasury, apart from being
extravagant in their spending.
Some of those allegedly indicted include the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC), the ministry of Interior, the
presidency, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
and foreign missions.
The report said between January and
December, 2014, under David Mark as
president of the Senate and chairman of the
National Assembly, and Salisu Maikasuwa as
the clerk, a department of the National
Assembly Commission transferred
N9,392,995,515.00 from the general
services account to other accounts in
different banks and that the purpose
reportedly given for the transfers included
Senate general services, appropriation,
constitutional review, House of
Representatives services, UNDP projects and
research office services.
The report said no expenditure returns or
documentary evidence were rendered to
account for how these sums were
expended. The report added: “It was further observed
that the total Personnel Vote release for the
year 2014 was N1,856,510,517.00 (One
billion, eight hundred and fifty-six million,
five hundred and ten thousand, five
hundred and seventeen naira), and the
Actual Expenditure for the same period was
N1,808,661,460.18 (One billion, eight
hundred and eight million, six hundred and
sixty-one thousand, four hundred and sixty
naira, eighteen kobo), resulting in a balance
of N47,849,057.00 (Forty-seven million,
eight hundred and forty-nine thousand,
fifty-seven naira).