Auditor-General of the Federation, Samuel Tyonongo Ukura has reacted to the claims by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in the media denying its findings on the Special Periodic Checks recently submitted to the National Assembly, wherein the commission was indicted to the tune of over N100 billion.
Recall, the Auditor-General, in exercising his constitutional mandate, had conducted a periodic check on the activities of the NDDC and had submitted its findings to the National Assembly.
Reacting, however, the Office make bold its statement public, based on the negative sentiments occasioned by the NDDC’s condemnation of the Special Periodic Checks in various media calculated to demean the efficacy of the constitutional mandate carried out by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
A statement from the commission said it took NDDC 16 months to grant the Office permission to commence the periodic checks, beginning from December 9, 2011, to May 6, 2013.
Also, it took another 16 months and several reminders of the NDDC with effect from April 24, 2014, to August 12, 2015, before the final report was submitted to the National Assembly.
The statement, however, expressed concern that as of now, the NDDC was yet to respond to the Special Periodic Checks conducted by the auditor-general, rather it resorted to diversionary issues that could demean the efficacy of the report.
The statement noted further that the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation has a constitutional mandate to submit its reports to the National Assembly and in doing so, due process were usually followed. It is therefore important to let the NDDC and the public know that the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation stands by the Special Periodic Checks on the NDDC and its contents.
However, any person or corporate organisation that is not satisfied with the contents of the Special Report has opportunity to defend itself before the Public Accounts Committees (PACs) of the National Assembly.
