The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) Monday denied claims by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) claim that its officials insisted that the corps annual financial and audited reports must be prepared by an independent accounting and audit firms before it will be acceptable
Chairman of FRC, Barr. Victor Muruako, who dismissed the allegations at the ongoing Hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), explained that such claims were untrue considering the fact that most of the MDAs have staff posted to them from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation AGF and that of the Auditor General of the Federation AuGF.
He said no such condition was issued by the the Commission, adding that it will accept financial and audit statements from MDAs prepared by relevant staff as expressly contained in the Act setting up the Commission.
“As chairman of the FRC, I’m not aware of the Commission insisting on independent accounting and audit firms preparing the financial statements of MDAs before they could be acted upon.
“FRC does not operate outside the Acts setting it up, which is specific about preparation of financial documents and Reports” Muruako added.
Earlier, a member of the committee, Hon. Oluwole Oke had questioned the rationale behind FRC’s insistence on financial statements prepared by independent accounting and audit firms, considering the cost of hiring such professional services, when there are competent in-house staff to do the Job.
Meanwhile, chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Hon. James Faleke has advised the NSCDC to review upward its licensing and yearly renewal fees for Private Guard Companies (PGC) as a means of shoring up her revenue generation capacity, especially in this austere time when revenue is needed to prosecute the 2024 budget.
The committee described as grossly inadequate the one-off licence fee of N2 million for Grade 1 Security Guard Companies, with more than 500 guards on their employ and N1.5 for Grade 2 companies with less than 500 with a yearly renewal fees of N200,000 and N100,000 for the two categories of companies.
In his presentation, the Deputy Commandant-General of the NSCDC, Nwinyi Nwokuche revealed that there are about 1300 PGC registered in the country with 400 of them in Lagos alone.
Consequently, the Finance Committee chairman then demanded for a full register of security guard companies operating in the country, their full addresses, amounts paid as licence and renewal fees over the years to give the committee proper insights into their operations.
