In accordance with Section 85(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, I have the honour to herewith submit to the National Assembly two (2) copies each of the following Special Audit Reports, together with two (2) CDs of the film titled ‘’Saving Lake Chad’:
I. National Audit Report on environmental audit on the drying up of Lake Chad.
II. Joint Audit Report on environmental audit on the drying up of Lake Chad, and
III. Special Periodic Checks on the Activities and programmes of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for the period 2008 to 2012.
While there is strong correlation between shrinking Lake Chad and insecurity in the North East of Nigeria, the activities and programmes of the NDDC if well implemented could bring about the desired peace in the Niger Delta.
The submission of special audit reports is different from the submission of annual report of the Auditor-General for the Federation on the Accounts of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the end of every financial year. I have submitted the latter up to the year 2013, while 2014 Annual Report of the Auditor-General for the Federation is in progress.
The coordinated environmental audit on the drying up of the Lake Chad was a performance audit exercise conducted in accordance with international best practices. The audit was carried out by Lake Chad Basin Commission Member Countries including: the Supreme State Audit Services of Cameroon, the Court of Auditors of Chad, the Court of Auditors of Niger, and the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This was sponsored by Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, a German Cooperation on good Financial Governance Programme in Africa for accountability.
The National Audit Report of Nigeria focuses on Nigeria, while Joint Audit Report is integration of National Audit Reports of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.
The key message of the national Audit Report of Nigeria is that Lake Chad is drying up very fast from 25,000 sq.km in 1960 to just 1,500 sq.km as at present. We must save Lake Chad from extinction.
REPORT ON SPECIAL PERIODIC CHECKS ON THE ACTIVITIES AND PROGRAMMES OF NIGER DELTA DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (NDDC) FOR THE PERIOD 2008-2012
SUMMARY OF EXPECTED REFUNDS
1) Mobilization payments to various contractors that never reported to site N70,493,993,000.00
2) Payments to contractors for projects not executed ‘’Stalled/Abandoned’’ – N5,838,768,000.00
3) Extra-budgetary expenditure for Head/Sub-head without approval by the Legal Authorities – N90,461,282,695.00
4) Tax deduction without evidence of remittance to Federal Inland Revenue Service – N10,072,330,926.00
5) Undeducted taxes from contractors – N1,172,836,759.00
6) Transfer to unauthorized Accounts – N3,118,000,000.00
7) Staff Advances outstanding/unaccountable for – N1,730,954,931.00
8) The total sum of N785,000,000.00 out of the N1.1 billion contracts for the supply of furniture to various schools in Delta State inspected were not done, but were certified to have been done and paid for.