Philip Nyam 
The National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission has never been audited since its inception in 1993. The House of Representatives committee on public accounts disclosed this at the ongoing investigative hearing into the activities of Ministries, Department and Agencies, as well as private outfits yesterday
. The committee frowned at the Commission, describing such actions as gross misconduct. When the Acting Chairman of the Commission, appeared before the Committee, the Auditor General said there was no information in respect to their audited accounts. The Auditor General, who was represented by Maryam Ibrahim, said: “External auditors are supposed to audit them and then we have records of their audited accounts.
But we do not have any record of this agency.” In his response, the chairman of the Wages and Salaries Commission, Mr. Ekpo Nta, said he resumed office in August 2009 and had observed the situation then. He said when he in-quired, he was informed it was because they did not have enough staff in the place and also due to funding.
He said all their auditing needs had always been incorporated in the Auditor General’s final report, which is presented to parliament. He said the Accountant General and the Auditor General post their staff to the Commission. “Incidentally, the commission is audited 100 per cent by the office of the Auditor General and that of the Budget Office in collaboration with the Accountant General’s office and the audit department of the office of the SGF. We do not have external auditors. As a matter of fact, they used to post staff to our audit to head the place until 2018. So, all our rendition and processes are domiciled with the office of the Auditor General of the Federation,” Nta said. Members of the committee said there is no way they would abandon such important function of rendition of account, saying without it the Auditor General cannot even raise queries on the transactions of this agency.
