An audit conducted by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation on the account of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government has revealed extra-budgetary spending of over N1trn in overhead cost.
The discovery was made by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation in its 2019 Audit Report for MDAs.
The report which was obtained by www.tracknews.ng revealed that the extra-budgetary spending was done by 84 MDAs.
The extra-budgetary spending by the 84 MDAs is a violation of the provisions of paragraph 13 of the Federal Government’s Financial Regulation
Paragraph 313 of the Financial Regulation states that “The authority conveyed to the Accountant-General, and to officers controlling votes, by Recurrent Expenditure
Warrants is limited to the amounts provided under each sub-head in the approved estimates and supplementary estimates.
“No expenditure on any sub-head of the recurrent estimates in excess of the provision in the Approved estimates or supplementary estimates may be authorised by any officer controlling a vote, without approval of the National Assembly.
“Such approval will be sought by means of an application for supplementary provisions or virement.”
Furthermore, the report stated that “Paragraph 107 of the FR requires the Accountant-General of the Federation to serve as the Chief Accounting Officer for the receipts and payments of the government of the federation; supervise the accounts of federal ministries, extra-ministerial offices and other arms of government.”
The Auditor-General in the audit report observed from the review of Overhead Cost to the FGN Consolidated
Financial Statements (CFS) that 84 MDAs exceeded their Overhead Cost budget by N1,006,542,151,109.36.
The audit further revealed that the sources of the extra spending were not disclosed neither was the evidence
of supplementary appropriation or approved virement provided.
It said that the total expenditure reported by the MDAs was N1,044,750,893,229.35, while the budget was N38,208,742,119.99, hence the extra budgetary
expenditure of N1,006,542,151,109.36.
It stated, “The Accountant-General of the Federation might have released Overhead in excess of Appropriation or that the MDAs incurred excess Overhead expenses
over the recurrent budgetary provision without approved supplementary estimate or virement by the National Assembly.
“The anomalies could be attributed to weaknesses in the internal control system in the consolidation process.”
