THE performance audit on some capital projects as well as checks on parastatals, primary schools, and tertiary institutions in Enugu state, were not carried out due to inadequate funding, staffing, and lack of operational vehicles, says the report of the State Auditor-General on the accounts of the government of Enugu state for the year ended December 31, 2024.
The report which is in compliance with section 125, sub-section 2 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria(as amended) and the Enugu state Audit Law No. 2 of 2021(as amended), recalls that the above deficiencies were highlighted in previous audit reports on the accounts of the state government.
The 2024 audit report (which is the current edition) obtained by SummitNews, comprises of an audit inspection of accounting records of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of the state government, examination of the payment vouchers of the treasury headquarters, auditing of financial statements prepared by the accountant general.
It also covered the periodic checks on some government statutory bodies, in consonance with section 125, sub-section 4 of the 1999 constitution (as amended).
The 2024 audit report signed by the Auditor-General, Enugu state, Dr. Okoro Livinus U. notes some anomalies in the manners in which the accounts were kept and rendered.
For instance, it was observed that “some recurrent expenditure items were either classified differently by MDAs – using different economic codes, or using one economic code.”
Not only that. The report also frowns at the use of recurrent codes to classify capital expenditure items.
However, the report says the attention of the accountant general has been drawn to these “anomalies for remedial actions.”
Furthermore, the report also noted that “proper documentation on revenue generated by some MDAs during the period under review were not carried out.”
On the area of bookkeeping and financial records, the report notes the existence of books of accounts and records in most MDAs, however, it states that “proper bookkeeping appeared to remain a big challenge to the present accounting officers in the system,” adding that “most of them exhibit inexperience and lack of interest on the accounting duties.”
It also notes that registers of fixed assets (plants, machinery/equipment, vehicles, buildings etc.) were either not maintained nor updated, saying that “monthly bank reconciliations were either not done or up-to-date.”
More Later.
