Lawmakers Request For CAC’s 2016 To 2020 Audited Financial Accounts
For spending exceedingly than its revenue, the House of Representatives has flagged the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as not qualified for 2022 budgetary approval until it submits its financial report from 2016 to 2020.
The foreclosure is based on the discovery by the federal lawmakers that the 2021 budget of the country’s business registry is already in deficit four months to the end of the year owing to excessive spending. Such spending is described as unhealthy for the country.
Rep James Faleke, Chairman, House Committee on Finance on Tuesday at the public hearing of 2022 to 2024 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) thereby called the attention of the Budget Office not to grant the commission any budgetary request until it cleared with the committee.
“I have worked in private organisations before coming to the House of Reps, and they will always regulate their expenses and not spend beyond what they generate”.
” In your case, you borrow money upfront even before the money comes, therefore, you will have to submit your 2016 -2020 financial report before you are granted an audience for the 2022 budget,” Faleke said.
The committee gleaned from the documents of the commission from 2016 to 2020 that its revenue had always been lower than expenditure and concluded that the agency needed to be restructured.
“You expended what you do not generate, this agency needs a total overhaul to turn it back to what is supposed to be.
“Today all the registration are done online, yet you are still carrying unbearable overhead, things need to change, the committee stated.
However, the Registrar-General of CAC, Alhaji Abubakar noted that most of the expenditures by the commission were settlement of liabilities
He stated that the agency had a liability of N2.024 billion in 2020, adding that the commission’s record was cleared and it had not been cooking its book as insinuated by a member of the House.
Until now that the lawmakers have called its financial accounts to question, CAC has always been noted for its shambolic service delivery while lawyers, accountants and secretaries that are in constant use of its online registration portal always complain about the poor operation that has caused several delays.
