ADVERTISEMENT
  • The Membership Club
  • PT Hausa
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
Saturday, March 6, 2021
Premium Times Nigeria
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
Premium Times Nigeria
BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Document counters Auditor-General’s denial of report indicting Oronsaye for N123Billion Fraud

Steve Oronsaye and the damning report

Document counters Auditor-General’s denial of report indicting Oronsaye for N123Billion Fraud

September 22, 2014
4 min read

PREMIUM TIMES challenges the Auditor-General to explain why he failed to forward the report to the National Assembly two years after, when he is constitutionally required do so within 90 days.

=====================

The Auditor-General of the Federation, Samuel Ukura, lied in his claim that no audit report from his office indicted a former Head of the Civil Service, Stephen Oronsaye, over an alleged N123billion fraud perpetrated during his tenure, between 2009 and 2010, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report today.

This newspaper had on September 15 reported how a team of auditors constituted by Mr. Ukura himself wrote a 169-page report indicting Mr. Oronsaye for allegedly presiding over a regime of sleaze during his tenure which led to the mismanagement of about N123billion of public funds.

But shortly after this paper published its story, the Auditor General’s office bought spaces in major Nigerian newspapers disowning the work done and the report written by his own staff.

In the widely circulated advertorial, he claimed there was no such report and that there was only “audit observation made by the audit team that conducted the audit exercise” — (whatever this means).

The Auditor-General, who appeared to have buckled under pressure from those desperate to suppress the report, also claimed that the so-called audit observation did not mention Mr. Oronsaye’s name nor did it indict him.

This newspaper is now making public the executive summary of the report, which clearly put a lie to all the claims made by the Auditor General.

Download the report here.

For one, the cover page of the document was entitled “Report of the Office of the Auditor-General on the Special Audit of the Accounts of the Civil Pensions For the Period 2005 – 2010 Financial Years”.

The document was a “Special Audit of Account”, and was never labelled “Audit Observation” as the Auditor-General is struggling to make the world to believe.

The report, which is a definite outcome of an investigation, arose from the work of a Special Audit Team constituted by the Auditor-General in May 2011 to conduct a comprehensive examination of the accounts of the Civilian Pension Department domiciled in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

The audit, which covered the period 2005 -010, uncovered monumental financial irregularities, opaque transactions, irregular and abnormal running costs, and outright stealing and kick-backs at the Head of Service’s office, a trend said to have reached its zenith during the 18 months that Mr. Oronsaye served as Head of Service.

Dangote adbanner 728x90_2 (1)

Although the auditors also uncovered financial irregularities during the tenure of his predecessors, the team found that it was during Mr. Oronsaye’s reign – between 2009 and 2010 – that the mismanagement of pension funds rose to an all-time high, with about N123billion of public funds unaccounted for.

In fact, contrary to the Auditor-General’s claim, the report clearly mentioned Mr. Oronsaye as having frustrated measures that would have allowed for some accountability in the administration of pension funds during his reign.

The report said on page 14: “The federal audit unit resident in the Establishment and Records office had been carrying out prepayment audit of pure federal retirees’ monthly pension and gratuities until August 2009, when the then Head of Service Mr. S. Orasanya (Orosanye) stopped further processing of pension payments in respect of pure federal retirees, as narrated by the then Auditor-in-charge, Mr. A. Eiyenla.”


This newspaper is in possession of documents showing how the internal auditor attached to his office, Oludare Medayedupin, repeatedly wrote to Mr. Oronsaye warning him of the financial mismanagement his office was perpetrating.

For instance, in March 2010, a frustrated Mr. Medayedupin wrote as follows:

“During the period of report (January 2010), directive was given (by Mr. Oronsaye) for the payment of the backlog of arrears of pensioners. The verification and clearance of the beneficiaries were conducted by the Accounts Unit, which had earlier prepared the list – thereby negating the principles of checks and balances.

“The verified vouchers for the arrears were not verified and audited before mandates were sent to the bank to effect payments, which was a clear violation of Financial Regulation 2011 and extant circular on government funds.

“After several write-ups on the need for compliance with financial regulation, payments of pensioners’ monthly pension are still being effected without auditing.”

But Mr. Oronsaye didn’t act on the auditor’s warning, and Mr. Medayedupin wrote the same kind of letter to him month after month. Those letters are part of the appendices attached to the report.

Image (236)

A spineless Auditor-General

Section 85(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, empowers the Auditor-General of the Federation to audit and report on the public accounts of the Federation and of all Offices and Courts of the federation.

RelatedNews

Blood on Uniforms (2): No justice for inmates killed by Nigerian prison officials

Army declares 12 officers, 89 soldiers wanted for deserting warfront (FULL LIST)

COVID-19: Nigeria records 479 new cases, eight deaths

AfDB approves $320,000 for gender digital financial operations in Nigeria, others

Similarly, section 85(4) of the Constitution stipulate that the Auditor-General shall have power to conduct periodic checks on all Government statutory corporations, commissions, authorities, agencies, including all persons and bodies established by an act of the National Assembly. Furthermore, Section 301 vests the Auditor-General with the power to audit the account of Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory.

In accordance to Section 85(5) of the 1999 Constitution, the Auditor-General shall, within 90 days of receipt of the Accountant General’s financial statement, submit his Report to each House of the National Assembly (The Senate and the House of Representatives) and each House shall cause the Report to be considered by a Committee of the House of the National assembly responsible for Public accounts.

Section 85(6) of the Constitution states that “in the exercise of his function under the Constitution, the Auditor General shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other authority or person”.

But by yielding to external pressure to suppress, and then disown a report by his own office, this Auditor-General has shown that he is a spineless, unprofessional official unfit for the position he has been given, said Musikilu Mojeed, PREMIUM TIMES managing editor, while reacting to Mr. Ukura’s action.

“These kinds of people are the reasons corruption is blossoming in this country,” Mr. Mojeed said. “He is a disgrace to his profession, to the department he heads and to this country whose progress is unfortunately being held down by monumental corruption.

“He should hide his face in shame because an Auditor-General who shields corruption is a present and permanent danger to his country, state or society.”

Mr. Mojeed challenged Mr. Ukura to tell Nigerians why he failed to forward the report to the National Assembly for consideration two years after his office completed work on it.

“The Constitution expects him to forward audit reports to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly within 90 days of completing work on them. But this man has been sitting on this report since 2011. After we exposed it, he is shamelessly scrambling to cover up himself and his corrupt friends.”

Mr. Mojeed said his newspaper would remain unbowed by the “antics of characters like the Auditor-General. We will never shy away from our mission of holding individuals, corporations and governments accountable in our country, no matter whose ox is gored”.

ADVERTISEMENT

Download Executive Summary of the Report of the Office of the Auditor-General on the Special Audit of the Accounts of the Civil Pensions For the Period 2005 – 2010 Financial Years here.

Read our story earlier story on the indictment of Mr. Oronsaye by the Auditor-General here.
  • WhatsApp
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • Telegram
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pocket

Support PREMIUM TIMES' journalism of integrity and credibility

Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.

For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.

By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.

Donate


TEXT AD: To advertise here . Call Willie +2347088095401...



JOIN THE CONVERSATION

  • Disqus (23)
premiumtimes



PT Mag Campaign AD

Previous Post

Nigerian Players Watch: Ahmed Musa is PREMIUM TIMES star of the week

Next Post

Nigeria’s First Lady tasks African leaders on conflict resolutions

More News

Chief of Army Staff, Ibrahim Attahiru (PHOTO CREDIT: twitter@HouseNGR)

EXCLUSIVE: Major shake-up as Army redeploys 120 generals, others [FULL LIST]

March 6, 2021
‎Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State [PHOTO CREIDT: kanostate.gov.ng]

Zamfara’s no-fly-zone will improve North-west security – Ganduje

March 6, 2021
Naira and Dollars

“Send a dollar, get five naira free”: CBN launches forex promo

March 6, 2021
President Muhammadu Buhari have taken the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. [PHOTO: Presidency]

UPDATED: Buhari, Osinbajo receive COVID-19 vaccines

March 6, 2021
ACompleted phase 1 housing units at Earthpoint and Modern Shelter estate

SPECIAL REPORT: Years after paying millions to developers, Abuja residents stranded without homes

March 6, 2021
COVID-19 vaccine. [CREDIT: Duetsche Welle]

COVID-19: As Nigeria commences vaccination, many citizens remain sceptical

March 6, 2021
Next Post
Patience jonathan

Nigeria's First Lady tasks African leaders on conflict resolutions

INTERVIEW: Our govt officials don’t steal public funds; they don’t use private jets or fly first class — Swiss Ambassador

INTERVIEW: Our govt officials don’t steal public funds; they don’t use private jets or fly first class --- Swiss Ambassador

Discussion about this post

Search

#EndSARS: Latest Updates




Polaris Bank


JAIZ Ad


Access Bank Ad


NITDA Ad





Glo Ad

Subscribe to News via Email

Enter your email address and receive notifications of news by email.

Join 1,629,692 other subscribers.

Advertisement






netherland biz school Advert



Zenith Advert

ADVERTISEMENT

Our Digital Network

  • PT Hausa
  • Election Centre
  • Human Trafficking Investigation
  • Centre for Investigative Journalism
  • National Conference
  • Press Attack Tracker
  • PT Academy
  • Dubawa
  • LeaksNG
  • Campus Reporter

Resources

  • Oil & Gas Facts
  • List of Universities in Nigeria
  • LIST: Federal Unity Colleges in Nigeria
  • NYSC Orientation Camps in Nigeria
  • Nigeria’s Federal/States’ Budgets since 2005
  • Malabu Scandal Thread
  • World Cup 2018
  • Panama Papers Game
  • Our Digital Network
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Data & Infographics
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • Parliament Watch
    • AGAHRIN
  • Opinion
  • PT Hausa
  • The Membership Club
  • Dubawa
    • Dubawa NG
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Digital Store
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

Our website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.