House of Representatives members heard on Monday that the account of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) was not audited in 2013 and 2014.
NSC Comptroller-General Col Hammed Ali told the House Committee on Public Accounts that the Service was awaiting the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to hire external auditors.
The House panel is investigating the missing of N14.8 billion from the coffers of the NCS in 2013.
It was prompted by the CG’s revelation that that the Service has no audited account because the BPP failed to approve the engagement of external auditors to audit its books.
Col Ali appeared before the House Committee on Public Account investigating various audit queries raised against the Service between 2013 and 2014 financial years including the missing N14.8bn from the covers of the Service in 2013.
Ali who was represented by a Comptroller, S I Ibrahim, said: “I want to tell this honourable Committee that as we speak, the Service has no audited accounts for the period under review because we had no approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, to engage external auditors.
“We just got this approval recently and the external auditors just sent a draft copy on the 2013 financial year to us just last week. We wrote several letters to the BPP on this until we got the nod, it is not our own making.”
Even after being cautioned by the visibly worried Committee Chairman Wole Oke that he should know he was on oath and should be sure of his utterances before the Parliament, Ibrahim said the Service was ready to come before the Committee with all relevant documents to prove its case.
Ibrahim told the Committee that prior to the introduction of the Treasury of Single Accounts, TSA, 28 Commercial banks were collecting revues for the Service.
Following the revelations, the Committee summoned the officials of the BPP to appear before it on Wednesday to respond to the claims of the Customs Service.
The Committee also summoned the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr Godwin Emeifele to appear before it on Wednesday to explain the missing N14. 8bn in the Service contained in the query raised by the Auditor General of the Federation on the 2013 financial year.
The Committee directed that the CBN governor should come before it with the statement of accounts of the Nigeria Customs Service within the period under review with a view to tracking down the missing money.
The Committee also ordered the Customs boss to produce before it on Wednesday three former Account officers with the Service on another audit query of N28 million said to have been expended on a training programme for personnel at the Service’s premises in Gwagwalada, during which over N1m was paid out for hiring of a hall.
Oke said: “It will be in the interest of the Customs boss to produce the affected officers, serving or retired, before this Committee to tell us all we need to know about the expenditure or should be ready to refund the amount to the covers of the Federal Government.”