Reps summon Emefiele, ex-Mint bosses over eight-year unaudited accounts

The House of Representatives committee on public accounts has summoned Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and former managing directors of Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc for allegedly failing to audit the accounts of the company for eight years.

They were also summoned for non-constitution of the board of the company.

The committee issued the summons after it was told that the agency operated without a board and financial audit since 2012.

Abbas Masanawa, the current MD of the NSPM, had appeared before the panel, represented by the director of finance, ugustine Omotoso.

The panel is investigating the expenditure profiles of over 300 Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government.

Omotoso, while making his presentation before the panel, told the lawmakers that there was no financial audit of the agency since 2012. He also said the board had yet to be put in place since he assumed office.

The CBN governor is statutorily the chairman of the NSMPC board.

The NSMP Plc was jointly established in 1963 by the Nigerian government and a British company.

The President Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration had in February 2002 privatised the company amidst controversy. Sambo Dasuki, the then managing director, had resigned in protest.

In 2006, the then governor of the CBN, Charles Soludo, had decried that Nigeria was the only country in the world that had a mint but still imported currency.

The committee also set up an inquiry into the project performance and expenditure of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, since it was set up in 2010.

The managing director of the NCDMB, Simbi Wabote, told the committee that there was no properly constituted board of his agency.

Wabote, who assumed office on December 12, 2016, also said, “I didn’t meet any audited accounts.”