
The Senate through its Public Accounts Committee has queried the State House and 557 Ministries, Departments and Agencies over the failure to account for N969 billion “intangible assets” in the 2019 budget.
This revelation is contained in the 2019 Annual Report of the Auditor-General of the Federation being considered by the Senate Public Accounts Committee.
Members of the panel, chaired by the vice-chairman of the committee, senator Ibrahim Hadeija while considering the report, lamented the humongous amount categorised as Intangible Assets in the 2019 budget as captured in the Auditor-General of the Federation’s report.
The report read, “Audit observed from a review of notes 36 and 36A (Intangible Asset) to the FGN’s Consolidated Financial Statement that the sum of N969 Billion was categorised under Notes 36A as Intangible Assets without a schedule showing the classification/nature of the intangible assets contrary to the provision of the International Public Sector Accounting Standard) 31.
“There was no disclosure to enable the audit to confirm which of the Intangible Assets has finite and infinite life, and bad for a determination whether amortisation should be or not.”
The representative of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Shuaibu Sikiru, said the template would be redesigned to accommodate the observation in subsequent years.
Among the 558 agencies are the State House, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Bureau of Public Procurement, National Population Commission, Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan, Federal College of Forestry, Jos, National Orientation Agency, Bureau of Public Service Reforms and Nigeria Police Academy, Wudili.