The Kaduna State House of Assembly has adopted the State Government annual audited accounts reports for the year 2019.
The sitting which was presided over by the Speaker, Alhaji Yusuf Zailani, adopted the report after presentation of the report by the Chairman, House committee on Public Account, Mr Samuel Ubankato.
When presenting the report, the Chairman, Public Account, said that the committee in the course of their findings recommends that the Kaduna State Inland Revenue Service (KADIRS) work out a realistic sharing formula which includes prompt remittance of their mandatory 10 percent from internal revenue generation to the 23 local government councils.
“This is to avoid the delay in the release of the 10 percent share of the IGR standing to the credit of the councils
“And also as a measure to enhance internal control mechanism in the operation of government finances, there is the need to separate line of profession between accountant and auditors.
“This will checkmate the problems of preference of treasury duties as opposed to internal auditing is reduced to Junior statues and inexperience” he said.
The committee also recommended that Office of the Head of Service and State Pension Board should improve in the area of management of records-keeping at various Ministries, Departments and Agencies to avoid disparity and non-response to situations that tend to delay payment of entitlement of retirees, especially when considering their ages and status.
Meanwhile, the annual account of the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) was also presented by the committee which also observed some lapses in areas of untimely receipt of quarterly returns from the Auditor-General which led to the delay in preparation of the final account of the council.
The committee observed the presence of low revenue generation in most of the councils and poorly kept financial records of the LGAs.
This led to prevalence of un-vouched payment, missing payments vouchers and payment without proper documentation.
The committee, however, recommended that all councils be directed to strengthen their internal revenue generation machineries by exploring other additional areas to boost their revenue portfolios.
The committee also directed that the Ministry of Local Government Affairs enforce strict supervisions of local government councils.
It also directed that Kubau, Kaduna North, Kaduna South and Zangon Kataf Local Government Areas of the State either direct contractors handling projects in the areas to return to site and meet up with contracted agreement or the whole amount of money paid to them be recovered with the tax that was not deducted from the initial payment made.
In an interview with the chairman, House committee on Public Account, Mr Samuel Ubankato, said that “any public fund that was expended without proper documentation or work that was supposed to be carried out and was not, but public funds were released to them should either go back to site and get the work completed within a short period of time or the law will take them up and will be forced to return the money given to them.
“…Such contractors should be black listed because we don’t have any business to do with them,” he concluded.
