Reps Summon FCT Area Councils Chairmen Over Financial Irregularities

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has summoned the Chairmen of the six Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, over alleged financial irregularities exceeding 100 billion naira, following an audit review.

The Auditor-General’s report for the FCT Area Councils, covering the year ended 31 December 2021, highlighted what it described as widespread cases of unremitted tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) deductions, failure to update fixed asset registers, and expenditures that were not properly accounted for.

According to the report, the six councils , Abaji, Abuja Municipal, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali recorded outstanding liabilities of 7.6 billion naira as of the end of 2021.

The liabilities include unremitted pension deductions, unpaid Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) taxes, outstanding capital project obligations, as well as unremitted VAT and withholding taxes owed to the Nigeria Revenue Service, the FCT Inland Revenue Service, pension fund administrators and contractors.

A breakdown of the figures shows that the Abuja Municipal Area Council recorded 2.19 billion naira in outstanding obligations. Bwari had 1.49 billion naira, Kwali 1.46 billion naira, Gwagwalada 1.01 billion naira, Kuje 892.2 million naira and Abaji 593.8 million naira bringing the total to 7.65 billion naira.

The report also criticised the councils for failing to properly maintain and update their fixed asset registers.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Bamidele Salam, confirmed that the audit report had been formally received and said letters had been sent to the council chairmen and their directors of finance, asking them to appear before the committee to respond to the queries.

Oduyemi Odumade, Edited By Grace Namiji