Leke Baiyewu, Abuja
The House of Representatives has given the Yaba College of Technology Lagos 30 days to prepare its accounts and present a report to the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, with proof of compliance sent to the House Committee on Public Accounts.
The committee added that if YABATECH failed to comply with the directive, the National Assembly would have no option but to withhold the budgetary allocation to the institution for 2020.
Management of the institution, led by its Rector, Mr Obafemi Omokungbe, had appeared before the committee in Abuja on Friday during an investigative hearing on the refusal by non-treasury-funded and partially-funded agencies to render their audited accounts between 2014 and 2018 to the Auditor-General of the Federation.
Omokungbe had told the committee that he assumed office in 2018 and that the accounts were not ready, as the external auditor engaged by YABATECH had yet to complete work on the accounts.
The committee, however, disagreed with Omokungbe’s submission and resolved to place the institution on status enquiry and probe into its financial records.
It stated that the submission was unacceptable and was against the financial regulations guiding the civil service.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Oluwole Oke, insisted that if the college failed to obey the directives, the National Assembly would withhold budgetary allocation to the institution for 2020 to serve as a deterrent to defaulting MDAs of the Federal Government.
Oke said, “It is not going to be business as usual. Let me sound a note of warning to those heads of MDAs hiding under the pretext of being new in office or absence of governing boards to approve their audited accounts as a deliberate cover-up for not remitting their audited accounts to the Auditor General of the Federation as and when due.
“We, as a committee, will fish out those involved and publish their names and their MDAs in the national dailies. We are compiling their names; there will be no hiding place for them. This is not a threat; we are going to carry it out to the letter.”
The matter was later stepped down to allow for the status enquiry as ordered.