The 2019 audit report, has revealed the Accountant General of the Federation’s failure to comply with extant regulations on approval of the federal government’s consolidated financial statement.
The report reveals that the accountant general of the federation was the only officer of the federation that signed the consolidated financial statement of position and he did so without indicating his FRC registration number. It also revealed that the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning did not sign the statement nor did it include her FRC registration number.
The FRC registration number is given by the Financial Regulation Council of Nigeria, an agency set up by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Act, No. 6, 2011 whose function is “developing and publishing accounting and financial reporting standards to be observed in the preparation of financial statements of public entities in Nigeria; and for related matters”. All professional accountants and auditors are required to have this registration number that serves as a stamp of professionalism as well as a unique identifier of work that they’ve done.
Paragraph 20 of IPSAS 1 states that the responsibility for the preparation of the consolidated financial statements of the government as a whole rests jointly with the head of the central finance agency such as the accountant general/the senior finance official and the finance minister or equivalent.
The consolidated financial statement containing only the signature of the accountant general without the signature of the minister of finance is a violation. Both the signature of the accountant general and the signature of the minister are recommended in order to ensure the fairness and accuracy of the information in the consolidated financial statement.
By implication, the accountant general is also in violation of paragraphs 103 and 105 of the financial regulations which state that the president of Nigeria has assigned the finance minister the responsibility of all financial businesses of the government of the federation and that the minister of finance is empowered to issue from time to time, financial regulations which are applicable to ministries, extra-ministerial offices, and all the arms of government. Without the signature of the finance minister, it can be assumed that the finance minister has either not performed the functions as stated in the paragraphs.
Paragraph 26 of IPSAS 14 states that an entity shall disclose the date when the financial statements were authorized for issue and who gave that authorization and if another body has the power to amend the financial statements after issuance, the entity shall disclose the fact. Again, the Accountant General’s consolidated statements did not contain a date or any of the other requirements contained in this section of the financial regulations document.
Violations such as these by the accountant general fuel doubts about the integrity of the consolidated financial statement of the accounts of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The Auditor-General has recommended that the accountant general complies with IPSAS 1 which prescribes the manner in which financial statements should be presented to ensure comparability of the entity’s financial statement of previous periods and with the financial statement of other entities and section 7 of the FRC act which requires the certification of the financial statements by the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Another recommendation is for the Minister of Finance, Budget And Planning to co-sign and date the consolidated financial statements of the federation alongside the accountant general.