Reps summon Cardoso, Edun over Fiscal Act breach

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, and the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, are to appear before the joint House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts and Public Assets on Monday, June 16, 2025.

The House made this known via a statement jointly issued by the chairman of the committee, Bamidele Salam, and his Public Assets counterpart, Ademorin Kuye, on Saturday, June 14.

Cardoso and Edun are expected to make clarifications on allegations of non-compliance with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.

They are also expected to make clarifications on internal control weaknesses identified in the 2021 reports by the Auditor-General for the Federation.

The two committees had jointly transmitted the invitation letter to the affected officials requesting them to provide details on remittances of operating surplus to the Federation Account by the CBN, in line with the extant laws.

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The Fiscal Responsibility Commission and the Auditor-General for the Federation had earlier submitted reports alleging that several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), including CBN, had failed to remit or under-remitted their operating surplus as required by extant financial law in the last six years.

The Public Accounts Committee chairman said the violations had negatively impacted the liquidity of the federal government, thus constituting a hindrance to the effective implementation of the budgets passed by the parliament.

The committee said it had given both the finance ministry and the CBN ample opportunity to reconcile their accounts and present their positions to determine the degree of financial liabilities involved, hence the need for the final hearing to resolve the issues.

It added that it was looking at the auditor-general for the federation’s statutory report, which suggested that a number of public assets, fully paid for, had not been completed and put into use for many years.

“Some of these projects in Dutse, Abeokuta, and other locations were awarded between 2011 and 2016 but have yet to be completed, according to audit reports,” the committee said.

The Star