By Favour Nnabugwu

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has demanded audited accounts of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM)) from 2019 to 2022.

The chairman of the committee, Hon. Busayo Wole Oke, demanded that the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Director of the Budget office to furnish the committee with the four audited accounts

Oke also directed the Clerk of Committee to write the SGF and the Budget Office to get these details when the Director General of PENCOM who was represented by the Commissioner in charge of Technical, Anyim Nyerere, appeared before it on Thursday .

The Auditor General of the Federation in a query to the Committee had said that the Commission had failed to render its audited financial accounts since 2013 till date.

However Nyerere said that the Commission failed to submit its audited financial account because it did not have a board at the time under review to ratify it as required by law.

He further explained that PENCOM had prepared the audited accounts from 2013 to 2017 which it submitted to the Office of the Auditor General but were rejected because they had no board in place and that the SGF was in charge of the budget of the Commission during this period.

Nyerere also said that the 2018 to 2020 budgets, by which time a board was constituted, for the Commission had been approved but yet to be submitted.

He said the 2021 and 2022 budgets were still at the draft stages and would be ready for submission within the next 30days.

Chairman of the Committee, Oke, excused the commission for not having a board saying it was not within their powers to constitute a board.

He decried a situation where sensitive agencies of the government like the PENCOM were being allowed by the Executive arm of government to run without boards for long periods of time.

He therefore declared that it was wrong that an agency whose assets had hit N14 trillion would be managed in such a shoddy manner.

He said that the Committee would decide the next line of action on the Commission upon the receipt of the copies of its budgets for the years under review from both the SGF and the office of the Director of Budget.