Ogun State House of Assembly Committee on Public Accounts and Anti-Corruption has invited former State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Waheed Odusile, former Permanent Secretary, Abiodun Awere and the Director of Finance and Accounts for financial infractions.
The officials who served in the Ministry between 2021 and 2022 are expected to appear before the Committee on Thursday, 29th of February, 2024 at 1.00pm to provide further information on various infractions regarding N92.9m released to the ministry from the Governor’s contingency fund to supplement funds released for the expenditures of the Ministry.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Damilare Bello, issued the directives while reviewing the Ministry’s 2021 and 2022 auditor reports and the financial documents presented by the Permanent Secretary Alhaji Waheed Adesina at the Assembly Complex in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.
The Committee also instructed the Ministry’s Director of Finance and Accounts to provide more information to the Committee about the N2.51 million transfer to individual accounts as reported in the Auditor General Report for the Year 2021.
According to the Committee, ” it was observed from the available records and bank statements of the Agency that N2,515,590.00 was transferred to the personal accounts of Mr. Ojo Emmanuel, Special Adviser on Media for the purchase of working tools for OGSG New Media Team.
“ This was a breach of Due Process procedure and it is against financial Regulations No. 614. It is advised that funds should be transfered directly to the vendors Bank Accounts and not individual personal accounts for the purpose of accountability and transparency”.
The Committee also asked for the submission of the cash inflows and outflows and requested the Director of Finance and Accounts to provide the Ministry’s up-to-date fixed asset register.
In response, Permanent Secretary Mr Adesina gave the Committee the reassurance that measures were taken to address concerns brought up in the audit report. He also pledged that the Ministry would abide by all directives in order to continuously advance accountability and transparency in the operation of the Ministry.
In a related development, the Committee also looked into the State Library Board’s financial records for the years 2021 and 2022, which were provided by Vincent Giwa, the Executive Director of the State Library Board.
The State Library Board’s previous director of administration and supplies as well as his counterpart in finance and accounts were instructed by the committee chairman to come before the committee further clarification on some issues raised in the reports of the Auditor General for the period.
Along with requesting the production of supporting documentation, such as invoices for certain budget heads and minutes from Tender Board meetings, the Committee also instructed the internal auditor to report back to it in the next seven days.
