BY OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

ABUJA— The House of Representatives has declared its readiness to probe Federal Government Ministries, Parastatals and Agencies by March next year, even as it plans to grant full autonomy to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, AuGF.

This was disclosed by Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the House, Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, while speaking to newsmen, weekend.

Olamilekan said also that the purpose of granting full autonomy to the office of AuGF was to prevent auditors from compromising professional standards, adding that to realise this objective, the committee would soon sponsor a bill.

Said he: “This proposed bill will ensure full autonomy to the AuGF’s office without going through the rigours it had gone through in the past.

“Can you imagine that the budget office allocated less than N1billion for the office to oversee a N4.9 trillion budget before the House raised it?.

“We will also ensure that auditors are located in one complex rather than the present situation where auditors are attacherd to MDAs, making them to submit doctored reports.”

It would be recalled that in a bid to check paltry allocation to the Office of AuGF last year, the committee had suggested that it was time an amendment of the constitution was made to place the office on the first line charge of the Federation Account.

The committee had also turned down the allocation of N892.5 million to audit the proposed N4.9 trillion 2013 budget, adding that such poor budgetary allocation would render the operations of the Auditor-General’s office ineffective.

The AuGF, Mr. Samuel Ukura, in the meeting told the committee that his office had sought approval for the allocation of N5.2 billion to audit the 2013 budget, but that the Ministry of Finance and Budget approved only N892.5 million.

Ukura had explained that as a result of financial incapacity, the accounts of several ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, could not be audited in 2012.

He told the  committee that there was zero allocation to his office in respect of the auditing of the Federation Account for 2013.

The Auditor-General also told the committee that in 2012, his office “audited only 44 MDAs, leaving out 97 Foreign Missions, due to lack of funds.

“Members of the Public Accounts Committee, who sought financial autonomy for the auditor-general office were surprised by revelations from the AuGF and took turns to lash out at a system that would frustrate the audit of MDAs.