The All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party in Kwara State have disagreed over whether an external auditor should be engaged to examine the state government account when there is the Auditor General’s department in the state public service.

The disagreement followed the forensic audit report which revealed the pilfering of N11.9bn from the Kwara State government account between 2011 and 2019 by an audit firm, SSAC and Professional Services.

The PDP in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Prince Tunji Morohunfoye, described the recent audit report by the APC government in the state as another unfortunate shady transaction.

It said, “It is pertinent to remind Kwarans that an external auditor doesn’t have the legal authority to audit state accounts. Such powers rest with the Kwara State Auditor General who is empowered by law to carry out audits.

“Having fired, albeit unceremoniously, the state’s Auditor General for daring to challenge the regime over the missing sum of billion naira (N6B) which was neither receipted nor retired, one can see why the illegality-prone regime of Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq decided to tread this path.”

The PDP described the auditing of the state government account as a scam as the audit firm SSAC and Professional Services is inactive, adding that the party’s enquiry made into the audit firm at the Corporate Affairs Commission revealed the audit firm hired by the government to do the job was dormant.

“According to the results of our legal query undertaken at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), it was discovered that the audit firm;SSAC Advisory and Professional limited purportedly hired by the All Progressives Congress administration led by governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is an inactive or dormant firm.

“This is according to a CAC signed report. Simply put; the company has not been making returns, declaring it’s income or paying any taxes”, the PDP said.

However, the APC in a statement mocked the opposition PDP for its ignorant rantings on the forensic audit whose report the state government recently received.

APC in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Folaranmi Aro, said that the fact that PDP could not distinguish between a statutory audit which the auditor general carries out as a matter of duty, and a forensic audit, which the Governor as Chief Executive, or the Executive Council can commission on suspicion of any fraud across government agencies, testifies to why the state was in such a big mess under their regime.

“For example, the Federal Government has repeatedly commissioned Forensic and Process audits of many of its agencies, including the NNPC, NPA, NIMASA, etc. These audits were not necessarily carried out by the Office of Auditor General. We aver that the PDP is suffering from crass ignorance in saying that the forensic audit should have been carried out or commissioned by the Auditor General. Which law stated that? None. It is a claim built on pitiable ignorance by those who often beat their chest about being well-educated,” the APC said.

“The firm contracted to do the job has past and current engagements with the Federal Government, State Governments, private firms, and international agencies. Certainly, these bodies could not have missed out or overlooked the issues of the firm being up to date in what is required of it as a consultancy firm and a registered business. In fact, the Federal Bureau of Public Procurement has issued an IRR to this firm for 2022, meaning that they are fully compliant to carry out work even for the Federal Government. We urge the PDP to limit its ignorance to its circles of hangers-on, rather than advertise its incompetence and arrogance to the whole world.

“We find it rather shameful that the PDP could in fact hang its infantile claim on a firm purportedly having an ‘inactive’ status on a website whose currency or accuracy the CAC customers do not have power over. Any reasonable person ought to know what a firm’s bonafides with CAC and other statutory body entail.

“Finally, we advise the key characters in PDP to prepare themselves for the grave consequences of their sheer abuse of office, instead of fooling around with laughable claims and diversionary tactics.

“Furthermore, in the interest of the good people of Kwara State, we also advise PDP to address the substance of the report which reveals substantial fraud and misapplication of funds, rather than chase shadows,” APC said.