Senate decries non provision of financial records of IPPIS by OAGF

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Tuesday decried the failure of the Office of Accountant General of the Federation to present the 2015 Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS) financial details to it for scrutiny.

The committees reaction was sequel to questions posed to the Account General of the Federation (AGF), Idris Ahmed, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.

The Chairman of the Committee, Sen Matthew Urohidge (PDP Edo), had requested him to present the statement of Account and mandate of IPPIS to the Committee for vetting which  he failed to do.

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts had requested the documents to assist it in its current probe of the queries raised by the office of the Auditor General for the Federation in his financial statement that raised a query for the Office of the Accountant General.

The Accountant General was represented by  a Director in his office, Mr Adiro Emmanuel, who was unable to provide all the necessary documents pertaining to the IPPIS account put at N2.9 billion.

Last week the Accountant General had told the Senate Panel that the documents were available on-line and that his office could make them available on demand.

But on Tuesday his representative returned without the documents with an excuse that the Office of the Accountant General had requested the documents from the CBN.

The office of the Accountant General was also unable to provide satisfactory response to why Nigeria’s revenue dropped drastically from N200 billion to N165 billion in 2015.

On the query concerning the N596 billion Ecological Fund and why the fund was not invested to yield more money for Nigeria, the explanation of the representative of the Accountant General was deemed not quite satisfactory to the lawmakers.

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary, Ecological Fund in the Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government, Habiba Lawal, explained that the fund in question did not belong to the Federal Government alone.

Unable to do anything substantial, the Senate Committee had to adjourn the meeting, while mandating the Accountant General of the Federation to within two weeks provide the documents and make himself available to the panel.(NAN)