2014 Audit Report: Ekiti owes N75b – AG

The Ekiti State Government on Monday stated that its debt port folio was now in excess of N75 billion as at December 2014.
The Auditor-General of the state, Daniel Kayode, stated this on Monday while presenting the state’s Audited Report of Accounts for 2014 to the state House of Assembly in Ado-Ekiti.
Kayode said: “The debts of Ekiti State as at December 31, 2014 were in excess of N75 billion.
“Average budget performance for the year was 71.02 per cent for revenue and 66.2 per cent for expenditure.
“The IGR performance was abysmally low, standing at 36.4 per cent of project; audit recommends vigorous efforts and smart approaches to IGR issue to turn the situation around.”
Kayode also stated that some parastatal accounts were last audited in 2010.
Kayode therefore called on the assembly to invite the affected Ministries, Departments and Agencies for questioning and clarification.
He called for an improved Internally Generated Revenue mechanism to check the menace.
The auditor-general said vigorous efforts and smart approaches to IGR issues must be made to turn the situation around.
In his response, the Speaker of the Assembly, Kola Oluwawole, said the House would not slacken in its responsibility.
Oluwawole said the legislature would continue to promote probity, transparency, accountability as well as qualitative public finance system for the state.
“I can assure Ekiti people that the Public Account Committee will immediately commence scrutiny of the report presented by the auditor-general,” he said.
The speaker urged “the present administration of Governor Ayo Fayose to improve on the existing level of achievements of the Public Sector Governance Reform against the prevalence of corruption”.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that those who attended the occasion included the state’s Deputy Governor, Dr Kolapo Olusola; the Head of Service, Dr. Gbenga Faseluka; and other top government officials.
NAN.