Opacity, weak audit trail, and abuse of the Fiscal Responsibility Act are creating fertile ground for suspicion about the Federal Government's commitment to financial transparency, fiscal integrity, and confidence-building, while threatening to undermine the gains of economic reforms. From weak audit systems, delayed reporting, poor disclosures, and opaque expenditure, Nigerians, including those charged with sensitive official responsibilities, are beginning to question the credibility of official pronouncements, which are often contradictory, as the government fails to comply with minimum financial disclosure and accountability requirements.
Executive Failure to Submit Expenditure to National Assembly
At the heart of the challenge, the executive has failed to submit its expenditure to the National Assembly as required by oversight requirements. Four months into 2026, the National Assembly has not received the 2024 and 2025 audited financial statements of the government, casting doubt on the seriousness of the government in confidence-building. The last audit report reviewed by the National Assembly was the 2022 report.
According to information obtained by The Guardian, the 2023 financial statement was only recently transmitted – a report that the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly is owing to the involvement of its members in political activities. The Guardian understands that the audit report of 2024 is being prepared while work is yet to start on the 2025 financial statement, as the budget is still running. This is said to have made it difficult for the Office of the Accountant General to submit a consolidated financial statement for the year.
Public Accounts Committee Directive
Earlier this year, The Guardian reported that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives directed the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to submit the financial statements covering 2023, 2024, and 2025 before October 2026. The directive followed an investigative hearing with officials of the offices of the Accountant-General and the Auditor-General for the Federation over persistent delays in the preparation and submission of financial statements.
Chairman of the Committee, Bamidele Salam, had expressed dissatisfaction over the continued non-compliance with statutory financial reporting obligations. He noted that the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) requires the publication of audited consolidated financial statements not later than six months after the end of each financial year.
Office of Auditor General Response
Amid the controversy, the spokesperson of the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation, Eme Iquo, told The Guardian that the Office of the Accountant General complied with the directive and submitted the financial statements for 2023 and 2024 before the March 31 deadline. She said the Auditor General has completed work on the 2023 audit report and has forwarded it to the National Assembly, which has yet to review it.
The case of delayed audit reports has been a long-standing challenge. Over the years, audit reports had been submitted to the National Assembly three to four years after the financial year being reported, most times rendering the audit queries useless, as some of the chief executives in charge during the accounting years would have left office. The 2022 report was submitted to the National Assembly only in 2025, almost two years after the previous administration had handed over to the current administration.
Constitutional Mandate and Oversight
Established under Section 85(5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the audit committees derive their authority from the constitutional requirement that the Auditor-General of the Federation submit audit reports to the National Assembly. The constitutional provision mandates that such reports be reviewed within 90 days of submission, underscoring the urgency attached to fiscal oversight in the management of public resources. The committee’s core responsibility is to examine the audit accounts of the federation and ensure that public funds are utilised in accordance with legislative appropriations and established financial regulations.
By law, audit reports are expected to be conducted every six months and submitted to the Auditor-General of the Federation, who in turn submits them to the Public Accounts Committees of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, mostly headed by members of the opposition parties. As of April 2026, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts is Aliyu Wadada Ahmed, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who represents Nasarawa West. The committee is responsible for overseeing the financial records of ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).
Defection Weakens Oversight
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Aliyu Wadada Ahmed, who was also a member of the opposition party, has defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He still occupies the position meant for the opposition. The recent mass defection to the APC may have weakened financial oversight, as most of the oversight committees are now members of the ruling party.
Nigeria’s persistent delay in public sector auditing is not merely a bureaucratic lapse. It is a structural weakness with far-reaching consequences for accountability, governance, and service delivery, experts have warned. The last audit found that large sums of public money are frequently categorised as ‘unaccounted for’ or tied to ‘unretired advances’, indicating that funds were disbursed without proper documentation or justification. In a system where audits are timely, such discrepancies would trigger immediate investigation and possible recovery. In Nigeria’s case, however, the issues often surface years after the deed was done, when officers in charge may have been redeployed, retired, or removed from office.
Expert Opinions
An investment banker, Tolulope Alayande, said the late submission of audit reports has defeated the aim they are meant to serve. “Audit queries often trail audit reports. Why? There are issues in the report that will require further explanation. So, it is not entirely true that audit queries always indict people. Also, audit reports frequently cite cases where funds have been fully disbursed for projects that remain incomplete or were never initiated.
“The consequences are visible across the country in the form of uncompleted infrastructure and communities deprived of essential services. Once again, the delay in auditing means that these failures are identified long after the opportunity for timely intervention has passed.” Alayande blamed civil servants for deliberately frustrating audit processes as “MDAs frequently fail to respond adequately to audit queries, and sanctions are rare”. As a result, many of the same infractions appear repeatedly across successive audit reports, suggesting a system that struggles not only with detection but also with enforcement.
The broader implications of this delayed audit system are profound. Financial mismanagement persists with limited deterrence, as the consequences for wrongdoing are neither swift nor certain,” he said.
The Executive Director of the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI), a non-governmental organisation focused on public accounts, Olusegun Elemo, said the problem lay with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation. He said the Auditor General could only do his work when the consolidated financial statement is submitted. He said it was an aberration that Nigeria does not have an audit law, which sets timelines for when actions should be taken. Nigeria currently lacks an audit law, although an audit bill is awaiting the President’s signature.
Also, Prof. Godwin Oyedokun of Lead City University said the revelation that the Federal Government’s last audit account was for 2022 should concern every serious stakeholder. He said public accounts are not mere administrative documents but the clearest evidence of how national resources are managed, what revenues were earned, what expenditures were made, and whether public funds were used lawfully and efficiently.
Also speaking, the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Eze Onyekpere, said delaying the submission of audit accounts was a clear sign of an ineffective audit regime, where audits are conducted many years after the activities and events being audited. He said key participants may have retired and are not available to answer queries, while memories have faded.
