LAWLESS BOOKKEEPERS: HOW N960,980 WAS ILLEGALLY RELEASED FOR WARM CLOTHING ALLOWANCE AND ORS BY FINANCIAL REPORTING COUNCIL

Secret Reporters

The Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria under the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment currently spearheaded by Shuaibu Adamu Ahmed as its Executive Secretary with a mandate of setting accounting standards in Nigeria in recent times has shown no regard for the Public Service Rules and Financial Regulation SecretReporters have learned.

This is as N960,980 (Nine Hundred and Sixty Thousand, Nine Hundred and Eighty Naira) was released without authorization despite the provisions of Circular Ref HCSF/CSO/HRM/Pol.1402 issued by the head of the Civil Service of the Federation which clearly states that traveling abroad for any purpose at government expense by the staff of MDA’s without prior approval of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation has been canceled.

According to the 2018 Audit Report from the Auditor General of the Federation, under the management of Daniel Asapokhai whose tenure since 2017 ended early this year, four officers were directed to represent the Executive Secretary at an award for African leaders of Integrity in Ghana.

A cumulative sum of N960,980 ( Nine Hundred and Sixty Thousand, Nine Hundred and Eighty Naira) we learned, was raised by the council and paid as air ticket and warm clothing allowance for the trip to the four officers with no approval from the Head of Civil Service of the Federation for the foreign trip in accordance with the provision of extant circulars on foreign trips by agencies and ministries.

Findings however show that Warm Clothing allowances according to the public service rule are usually paid to officers traveling to cold or temperate regions of the world which Nigeria’s neigbour Ghana, with an average daily temperatures range from 30°C (86°F) during the day to 24°C (75°F) at night is not listed under.

It is unconfirmed if the funds were ever recovered before Daniel Asapokhai left the council as the Auditor-General of the Federation also queried the erstwhile Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) over alleged extra-budgetary expenditure of N258 million on Personnel Cost from the agency’s 2017 approved budget.

This Asapokhai responded by stating that “For the year 2017, the sum of N81 million was appropriated as government subvention for Personnel Cost for the Council.

There have been calls from relevant bodies to the Executive Secretary to strictly comply with the provision of extant circulars as his inaction may have given room for the council to undermine constituted authority and disregard for government policies on foreign trips and payments of Warm Clothing allowance.