By Inalegwu Shaibu
ABUJA — Senate President, Senator David Mark, yesterday, recommended mass sack for officials of government agencies that have failed to present their audited accounts to the National Assembly for vetting.

Mark, who also issued a query to the agencies while inaugurating the Senate Committee on Public Accounts noted that any official found culpable should be sacked.

He was reacting to revelations by the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ahmed Lawan, that only 70 of the 494 federal agencies have up-to-date audited annual account, while 315 were in varying periods of arrears, and 107 have never submitted annual accounts to the National Assembly since coming into operations.

He said it was unacceptable, adding that the National Assembly will not sweep it under the carpet.

He said: “I am surprised that we have as many as 107 agencies that have just taken it for granted and just do what they like in government. This is not the way things work. Some people cannot be dragging others down.

“Truly, those who are in charge of these 107 agencies want to lose their job. I know it is not a military regime; the President cannot get up and dismiss people but there are procedures. There are processes where people can lost their jobs if they would not obey simple rules and regulations. If they cannot conform to what is right, then they should be shown the way out because this government is not going to wait for eternity for people to continue doing things the way they want.

“If they cannot do the right thing, then they have no business being in government because there are so many Nigerians who are prepared to work.”

Mark also called for the review of the law establishing the office of the auditor General of the Federation as well as all laws governing the auditing of budgetary spending by federal ministries and agencies in the country.

He said the laws have become obsolete and need to be amended to reflect the current best practices in management of national resources.

“We are still using an act that was enacted in 1958. It is very old and completely outdated. So I think that act needs to be repealed and reenacted as soon as possible even before we go on our recess.

“We also have a responsibility to provide legislation that will ensure that the AGF’s work is not impeded so that he can submit his annual report so we must do our own bit by repealing this ordinance act,” he said.

Earlier at the event, Senator Lawan said the committee will no longer use carrot and stick to ensure compliance from the agencies but will employ the method of publishing the names of defaulting agencies.