The spokesman of the Senate Abdullahi Sabi, has said that the lawmakers will probe the auditor-general’s 2014 annual audit report on ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) which the Auditor General of the Federation Samuel Ukura presented to the National Assembly on Monday.
Senator Sabi said in Abuja Tuesday while reacting to questions from journalists on the position of the Senate on the AGF’s report, which exposed various transactions carried out by various agencies of government in breach of laid down rules and regulations.
He also clarified that an audit query did not automatically imply an indictment, saying that it was wrong for people to conclude that queries issued to MDAs meant that those establishments had been indicted.
The Senate spokesman further disclosed that the Upper Chamber would critically scrutinise all the issues raised in the queries, with a view to ascertaining the truth or otherwise of the content of the report.
He said that the 8th Senate was determined to be different from previous assemblies by doing things with the spirit of the Change mantra of the present administration, which is rooted in transparency in the handling of government business.
Sabin reiterated that the current Senate would step up its oversight functions by being proactive in unravelling anomalous practices in the MDAs before other agencies would blow the trumpet.
The lawmaker argued that if the parliament had carried out its oversight responsibilities properly in the past, some of the queries raised by the AGF would not have arisen.
“The Eighth Senate has chosen to be different as we have stated several times since we came on board, and for which we came up with our legislative agenda to make us different from the past because we are in the season and period of change and we want to seriously key in to that.
“Along that line, you could see the courage that we have to make some differences from what obtained in the past; and on this note, we have passed reports of some committees like the TSA, which is a classical example. Through that exercise, we were able to save the country N7bn.
“There are similar works that had been done. We want to say that since we have chosen to be different, we urge Nigerians to wait and see what we will make out of the investigation.
“The auditor-general is raising a query; it is not an indictment. So when he raises his queries, the essence of the Public Accounts Commiittee is to invite those parties involved in the query and, through the instruments of their own work, investigate all the issues by seeking clarifications and, at the end of the day, where there are infractions or infringement on certain procedures, they mete out appropriate sanctions as stipulated by extant rules and regulations,” the Senate spokesman stated.
-Leadership