About twenty-one federal government agencies may be denied budgetary allocation for the 2026 fiscal year over persistent failure to account for public funds and refusal to comply with legislative oversight.
This is part of resolutions adopted by the House of Representatives committee on Public Accounts after a review of budget performance of several federal government ministries, departments, and agencies in the 2025 fiscal year.
Chairman of the Committee, Bamidele Salam, who approved the recommendation during a budget performance public hearing on Thursday, explained that the decision followed repeated invitations and directives to the affected agencies to respond to audit queries contained in the Auditor-General for the Federation’s Annual Reports for 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The Committee noted that the affected agencies declined invitations and failed to submit critical financial records, which would have helped to address audit observations relating to alleged non-compliance with Financial Regulations, violations of due process, and serious weaknesses in internal control systems.
The committee maintained that several of the agencies have also failed to submit audited financial statements for about five years and above, contrary to statutory requirements, insisting that the National Assembly will not continue to appropriate public funds to institutions that disregard accountability mechanisms.
Salam expressed disappointment that most agencies are ignorant of the trust invested in them by Nigerians to manage public funds, insisting that failure to follow constitutional provisions for accountability amounts to a breach of trust, which the National Assembly must guard against at all times.
The recommendation, according to the committee, is not punitive but a corrective measure, aimed at restoring fiscal discipline and strengthening transparency across federal institutions as enshrined in relevant provisions of the Financial Regulations act 2009 guided by the constitutional oversight powers of the National Assembly.
The agencies affected include: the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), and National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB)
Others are:
- Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)
- Federal Ministry of Housing & Urban Development
- Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development
- Federal University, Gashua
- Federal Polytechnic, Ede
- Federal Polytechnic, Offa
- Federal Medical Centre, Owerri
- Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi
- Federal Medical Centre, Bida
- Federal Medical Centre, Birnin Kebbi
- Federal Medical Centre, Katsina
- Federal Government College, Kwali
- Federal Government Boys’ College, Garki, Abuja
- Federal Government College, Rubochi
- Federal College of Land Resources Technology, Owerri
- Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria
- FCT Secondary Education Board
(Editor: Ebuwa Omo-Osagie)
