Auditor-General flags N100bn financial breaches at power ministry

Powerlines

The Federal Ministry of Power has been indicted by the Auditor-General of the Federation for financial irregularities and breaches of public finance rules.

Findings in the Auditor-General’s 2022 Annual Report on Non-Compliance (Volume II) revealed multiple infractions at the ministry, ranging from unaccounted funds and procurement violations to unauthorised expenditures.

According to the report, irregularities traced to the ministry’s 2021 financial operations amounted to N100.37bn, raising fresh concerns over internal controls and fiscal discipline within the power sector.

The report, which has been transmitted to the National Assembly and obtained by Sunday PUNCH, places the Ministry of Power alongside a growing list of federal agencies flagged by auditors over alleged mismanagement of public funds.

The report indicts the ministry over unaccounted cash balances, unaudited contracts, procurement breaches, unauthorised foreign travels, and undocumented transfers to major power projects, warning of systemic weaknesses in internal controls that could enable diversion of public funds.

The auditor general identified a N230,795,255.27 discrepancy between the Federal Ministry of Power’s capital cash book and balances recorded on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System.

While a committee from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation certified a capital cash book balance of N15.59bn as of December 31, 2022, GIFMIS records showed N15.36bn, leaving the difference unexplained. Punch