From Right, Commissioner for Finance, Mr Nsikan Nkan; Accountant General, Pastor Uwem Andrew-Essien; Commissioner for Works, Prof Eno Ibanga; and Permanent Secretary, Government House, Mr Nathaniel Adiakpan (standing) during the public hearing on the 2019 audit report.
By Abasifreke Effiong – Uyo
The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly on Monday 18th January opened investigation into the 2019 controversial annual report and audited financial statements of the State.
A public hearing was held in the conference room of the House of Assembly in response to a three-part media investigation which exposed cases of extra-budgetary expenditures in the 2019 annual report and audited statements of the State published by the office of the Accountant General.
The media investigation which was supported by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, International Centre for Investigative Reporting and Policy Alert exposed how the office of the SSG, and the the Akwa Ibom State Government House made over N10 billion in extra-budgetary expenditure on maintenance of the State aircraft, purchase of cars, fuel and lubricants in 2019.
In reaction to the media report, the Akwa Ibom State Government had claimed that ‘coding error’ occurred in the course of producing the 2019 annual report and audited financial statements, hence changed figures on some of the expenditure items in the published audited account.
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The State government said it had withdrew the version of the 2019 annual report and audited financial statements which had the coding in September.
The House of Assembly had on December 8, 2020, set up a ad hoc committee to investigate the issues raised in the media report after an outcry by Civil Society Organisations and Akwa Ibom people.
The report had also indicated that the 26 members of the House of Assembly were given constituency projects valued N1.057 billion in 2019.
Chairman of the ad hoc committee on the 2019 audit report and Leader of the House of Assembly, Comrade Udo Kierian said at the opening of the session on Monday that the investigative hearing was “in response to issues raised by Akwa Ibom people on the 2019 financial statements of the State”.
Comrade Kierian who moderated the session called for submission of copies of the authentic copy of the 2019 Accountant General’s report and the copy of the previous report which had coding errors.
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The two documents were presented by the Accountant General of the State, Pastor Uwem Andrew-Essien.
In his oral presentation at the hearing, Pastor Andrew-Essien said withdrawal of the first annual report ridden with coding errors was done in good faith and in the best interest of the public.
“After the report was published, we noticed a printer’s devil and we immediately withdrew the report, made corrections and published a new, authentic report. That was the best thing to do at that point.”
He said the authentic annual report and audited financial statements of the State for the year ended December 31, 2019 contained the correct expenditures made during the fiscal year.
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The Accountant General stressed that there were no extra-budgetary expenditures in the authentic report, copies of which were circulated to some journalists in the State in November last year.
“There were no extra-budgetary expenditures. Payments were made inline with the approved budget”, Andrew-Essien stressed.
The Accountant General explained that N1.057 billion expenditure on ‘facilitation of 26 constituency development projects in the 26 State constituencies of Akwa Ibom State’ in the authentic annual report and audited financial statements for 2019 was payment for arrears owed resource persons for constituency projects done in 2013, 2017 and 2018.
This was corroborated by a member of the Inter-Ministerial Direct Labour Coordinating Committee who submitted documents on the constituency projects, locations, names of resource persons and payment made for the jobs.
Though the documents were not shown to members of the public at the hearing, summary of the report read out indicates that arrears of N190 million was paid for 2013 constituency projects; for 2017 ward projects N658 million was paid while N209.3 million was paid for 2018 projects rolled over to 2019, making it a total of N1.057 billion posted in the 2019 annual report as payment for constituency projects.
The inter-ministerial committee said no member of the House of Assembly was asked to nominate a project in 2019.
In his presentation at the hearing, Permanent Secretary, Government House, Mr Nathaniel Adiakpan, under whose office an expenditure of N1.3 billion was made on purchase of fuel and lubricants said the government house runs on a “structured source of power supply”, hence the huge expenditure on fuel and lubricants.
“The government house was not structured in such a way that it will run on a source of power that is not stable. The kind of equipment we have there need constant power supply all day, that is why the government house is not connected to the national grid.”
Mr Adiakpan said the expenditure which also covered the daily fuelling of cars including security vehicles in Government House and was within the limit of the budget approved.
On security encoded ID cards for intending pilgrims which the Government House spent N9 million on, Mr Adiakpan said the ID cards “had some security chips and marking that make them unique to guard against possible cases of impersonation”.
Our previous investigation revealed that no security ID card was produced for intending pilgrims in the State in 2019.
However, the ad hoc committee frowned at the production of ID cards for pilgrims by Government House instead of the State Pilgrims Welfare Board.
Addressing Mr Adiakpan, chairman of the ad hoc committee on the investigative hearing, Comrade Udo Kierian said “Permanent Secretary, this committee doesn’t find this right; we have Pilgrims Welfare Board in this State, we don’t see any reason production of ID cards for pilgrims should be done in government house. We recommend that from 2022, that budget item (production of ID cards) should be done by the Pilgrims Welfare Board”.
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Meanwhile, the committee has directed the Accountant General and Permanent Secretary, Government House to furnish her with details of projects called ‘government special development projects” which gulped N3.6 billion in 2019 at the next sitting of the committee where the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem is expected to make presentations on expenditure on purchase of cars and maintenance of the State aircraft by his office in 2019.
Also expected to make presentations at the next hearing is the Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr Okpolupum Etteh.
The Commissioner for Finance, Mr Nsikan Nkan and Commissioner for Works, Prof Eno Ibanga,and the Auditor General of the State made oral presentations at the opening investigative hearing on Monday.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the investigation committee, Comrade Kierian said members of the public wishing to make contributions at the hearing should submit a memo to the secretary of the committee and they would be invited to speak based on their submission.
