By Chukwudi Abiandu
The Auditor General of Delta State has called for the configuration of the State’s accounting system to allow for the production of a complete set of financial statements for the State.
The call is contained in a recommendation made by the Auditor General of Delta State, Mrs V.A. Okonji, FCA, ACT, in the Report of the Auditor General on the Account of the Delta State Government for the year ended 31st, December 2024.
On the Book-Keeping and general observations of the State’s accounting system, the Auditor General’s Report stated: “The financial module of the accounting system supporting the production of financial statements by the Accountant-General is yet to be fully configured, integrated and utilized in an environment where budgeting and approvals for payments are initiated and domiciled in SAP, thereby making audit trail laborious.
“It is the recommendation of Audit that the accounting system should be configured, integrated and put in use to ensure the production of a complete set of financial statements.”
The Report made it clear that the Auditor-General is responsible for the audit of accounts of all Accounting Officers and all persons entrusted with the collection, receipt, custody and issue or payments of public monies.
Accordingly, the Report in its observation, identified and listed Ministries and Departments and Agencies of the State Government that defaulted with no response to audit queries requesting them to account for public monies they received; whether they were expended for the purpose for which they were appropriated and the expenditures made as authorized.
Pointing out that the observations and recommendations that formed the basis for the 2024 audit Report were extensively discussed with the relevant Officers of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and officially communicated to them for their comments and necessary actions, the Audit Report identified the “Non performing revolving loans and advances of the Tractor Scheme under supervised by the Job and Wealth Creation Office as a culprit that failed to fully account for the money received by the office. For the “Non Performing Revolving Loans and Advances”, the Audit Report states: “During the audit of the year 2024 Financial Statements, the following were observed:
- Tractors Scheme under the supervision of Job and Wealth Creation Office (formally Job Creation Office):
“There was no response from the office of the Job and Wealth Creation Office as to the extent to which beneficiaries have refunded the loan given to them. However, out of the total sum of N279,804,552.50 only, given as revolving loan, only N28,850,573.35 only had been refunded, leaving a balance of N250,953,979.15 as at 31st December 2022. The balance is still outstanding.
- Mass Transit Bus Scheme (Ministry of Transport):
From the total vehicle loan of N4,513,770,385.00 allocated to the scheme, it was observed that N1,785,525,546.00 only has been refunded in 2023, giving a balance of N2,728,244,839.00, which is still outstanding and has not been recovered by the Ministry. This shows that not enough efforts have been made to recover the outstanding loans 2024.
- Poultry Farmers Support Programe (Ministry of Agriculture):
There was no information as to the recovery of the outstanding loan of N33,336,233.78 reported in the 2023 Audit Report.
- Ministry of Agriculture Loans to Farmers (Snail Multi Farmers Prog)
There was no information as to the recovery of the outstanding loan N11,371,962.40 reported in the 2023 Audit Report.
On the presentation of the annual appropriation accounts by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) the Audit report stated that “some ministries, Departments and Agencies in their preparation and presentation of Appropriation Accounts and other relevant accounting documents for audit check, it was observed that what is sent to the Office of the State Auditor General is different from what is in the approved budget and their DVEA book, and not properly prepared.”
On Non-Regular overhead, the report queried the Directorate of Establishment and Pensions on audit issues, saying: “A total of two payment vouchers amounting to N13,160,000 were queried for no audit certificate. Also queried for no audit certificate is the Ministry of Technical Education. The Audit report observed that “A total of six payment vouchers amounting to N11,629,000 were queried for no audit certificate.”
What it means is that the Job and Wealth Creation Office,( formerly Job Creation Office), the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture did not maintain proper books of accounts and records during the period covered by the Audit examination. They also did not fully account for “all public monies” they have received, and have therefore, reneged in showing that the monies they received have been expended for the purposes for which they were appropriated and the expenditures made as authorized.
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