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Tag: Audit Report

  • Nigerian Banks, Companies fined N125m for failing to file audit reports

    Nigerian Banks, Companies fined N125m for failing to file audit reports

    At least eight banks and 18 other listed companies in Nigeria have been collectively fined N125 million for their failure to submit their 2022 audited financial statements and quarterly reports for the first half of 2023, as mandated by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX).

    Among the banks that faced sanctions were Unity Bank, FBN Holdings, Access Holdings, Fidelity Bank, Jaiz Bank, Wema Bank, Guaranty Trust Holdings Plc, and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated.

    The regulatory rules of NGX dictate that quoted companies must submit their audited results within 90 calendar days or three months after the relevant period has ended.

    Additionally, interim reports are required to be submitted within 30 calendar days after the end of each relevant period.

    FBN Holdings, for instance, was fined for both the delay in submitting its 2022 financial results and its quarter one report for 2023, resulting in total fines of N6.3 million and N3.3 million, respectively.

    Unity Bank faced similar penalties, paying N6.4 million for a delay in submitting its 2022 results and N3.4 million for the delay in its Q1 2023 interim reports.

    Other banks such as Fidelity Bank, Guaranty Trust Holdings, Wema Bank, and Access Holdings faced fines ranging from N1.4 million to N2.7 million.

    Meanwhile, Jaiz Bank, Ecobank, and John Holt faced penalties of N600,000, N3.2 million, and N3.2 million, respectively.

    Non-bank companies like PZ Cussons, Notore Chemical, Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Nigeria, Industrial Medical and Gases Nigeria, and Juli Plc were also affected. GSK, which had announced the closure of its operations in Nigeria, paid a fine of N1.3 million for failing to file its 2022 financial results as required.

    Other companies, including Regency Alliance Insurance, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria, NPF Microfinance Bank, Daar Communications, Champion Breweries, and Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc, were fined varying amounts, ranging from N1.2 million to N4.9 million, for the same offense.

    Furthermore, Presco Plc, Ardova, Universal Insurance Plc, Conoil, Caverton Offshore Support Group, Briclinks Africa Plc, Telecommunications services firm, and more were also among the companies fined for non-compliance with the filing regulations.

  • Audit Report: Reps summon Ag AGF, MDAs over financial accounts

    Audit Report: Reps summon Ag AGF, MDAs over financial accounts

    The House of Representatives has summoned the Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Okolieaboh Sylva for failing to lay the 2020 audit reports of Ministries, Department, and Agencies (MDAs) of Government.

    Rep. Oluwole Oke, Chairman, Committee on Public Accounts, issued the summoned on Tuesday in Abuja at the resumed hearing of the Committee on queries against MDAs by the office of Auditor General of the Federation.

    Oke frowned at the development and declared that this was affecting the work of the parliament at looking into the financial transactions of MDAs which would no longer be tolerated.

    “As the  9th Assembly is winding down, we need to redouble our efforts at looking into all the reports already laid before the House.

    “We have completed work on those from 2017 and our reports are already in the press after which we will lay the reports before the whole House for official consideration.

    ”This is why we are inviting the Accountant General of the Federation to come before this committee to tell us while he is yet to lay the  2020 audited reports of MDAs before the Parliament.

    ” We need to listen to him to know where the problem is coming from so that we can wade in to resolve whatever hindrance affecting the presentation,” he said.

    He said that the Minister of Finance had said that the nation’s expenditures surpased its income and the ICPC also confirmed that the 2022 budget was padded by the executive arm by several billions of Naira

    He said that what the country needed was to redouble its efforts at revenue generation and as well check the books of the MDAs.

    He warned all heads of MDAs who had refused to appear before it over audit queries raised against them to retrace their steps and do the needful in thier own interest.

    He said that the committee would have no other option than to effect the arrest of the defaulters or relocate its sitting to the premises of such MDAs

    He said that there was a need to look for the needed money to finance the 2023 budget to cater for the needs of the entire populace.

  • 2019 Audit Report: Speed up passage of new Audit Law to check MDAs, critical stakeholders tell NASS

    2019 Audit Report: Speed up passage of new Audit Law to check MDAs, critical stakeholders tell NASS

    Apparently disturbed by massive corruption reports on several Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF), stakeholders have joined calls for enactment of a new audit law to strengthen accountability in the public sector.

    The Project Manager at BudgIT, Tolutope Agunloye led the call during the anti-corruption radio program, PUBLIC CONSCIENCE, produced by the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development, PRIMORG, on Wednesday in Abuja.

    Reacting to the breakdown of the 2019 Auditor-General’s report by the International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), where heads of Federal Government MDAs and National Assembly members failed to account for over N377bn and about N2.5 billion of their expenditures, Agunloye lamented that corruption in the public sector continues to gain momentum due to lack of punishment against corrupt public servants or individuals in past audit reports.

    He called on the current members of the National Assembly to prioritize the passing of the Federal Audit Bill into law with the limited time left in their tenure, noting that it will strengthen the Auditor-General to tackle corruption in the MDAs.

    He added that the current federal audit law is archaic and cannot efficiently stand against the present-day corruption in the public service.

    “We are running a 1956 audit law instituted even before independence, that’s what we are still running in 2022, so the corruption in 1956 might just have changed from Y to Z.

    “So it simply means that the corruption might have changed, and it simply means you need to come up with laws that will tackle the new corruption,” Agunloye stressed.

    He urged Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and citizens to continue the advocacy for the passage of the audit bill to empower the Auditor-General’s office.

    He expressed the fears that the legislators may not prioritize the passage of the audit bill due to politicking ahead of the 2023 elections.

    “Citizens should pick up the bill and go to their House of Reps members, at least they have offices in their constituencies, and you never can tell, the lawmakers may take up the issue and pass the audit bill into law to empower the Auditor General to do his job well, the audit bill right now is not being spoken of.

    “Since President Muhammadu Buhari refused to assent to the Federal Audit Law passed by the Eight Assembly, I expected the current lawmakers to submit the bill again the moment they resumed office,” Agunloye stated.

    Senior Investigative Journalist at the International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Olugbenga Adanikin called on anti-graft agencies to act swiftly against numerous corruption reports stemming from past and present Auditor-General reports without waiting for public outcry or petitions.

    Adanikin stressed that the annual audit report has become an embarrassing document because no action is taken against government agencies or individuals found wanting to mitigate future occurrences.

    His words: “virtually every year you keep on seeing the huge amount of money, public funds were stolen, you see a civil servant travel outside the country, you see all manners of trips without evidence that they embarked on the trip, you won’t see boarding pass; you also have situations where government agencies spend above their allocations; you also see situations where heads of agencies spend beyond their threshold.”

    Adanikin, however, revealed that ICIR will not relent in exposing corrupt practices in Nigeria and will continue to collaborate with other CSOs to achieve their set goals.

    “At ICIR, we don’t want to know who you are, so far you are a corrupt government official, and then you are being paid through taxpayers’ money. We (ICIR) will put your name out there; we will put your photographs out there. We are not the judiciary, so once we put it out there, Civil Society organizations like PRIMORG, BudgIT can now come up and join the advocacy,” he said.

    The Auditor-General of the Federation, Adolphus Aghughu, had lamented that his office was incapacitated from functioning effectively and efficiently in detecting mismanagement of public funds by the MDAs while submitting the 2019 Audit report to the Clerk of the National Assembly.

    Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio program used by PRIMORG to draw government and citizens’ attention to corruption and integrity issues in Nigeria.

    The program is supported by the MacArthur Foundation.