The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed why it has not published the annual financial statement of political parties since 2016.
Naija News reports that the 1999 constitution and the Electoral Act mandate all political parties in the country to submit their audited accounts to INEC for monitoring of their finances.
In an interview with The Punch, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi said the failure of the parties to submit their statements of account was responsible for the delay in publishing them.
He said the commission has audited the accounts of political parties up till 2016 and its currently vetting the 2017 and 2018 accounts.
Oyakanmi said the outbreak of COVID-19 and the deregisteration of some parties affected the commission in auditing the accounts.
He, however, disclosed that the audit of the parties’ financial statements will be done in due course.
He said, “The commission has audited the accounts of political parties up till 2016 and we have gone far on 2017 and 2018 accounts.
“However, the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 slowed us down. Don’t forget also, the commission deregistered 74 political parties in February 2020 and we now have 18 political parties. However, we have made substantial progress and work on this issue will be completed in due course.”
