By Christiana Ekpa
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Account yesterday summoned the Minister of Industry, Trade and investment, Adeniyi Adebayo and the management of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to appear on Friday 26 June.
The summon was sequel to the refusal of SON to honour several invitations to appear and explain why it had failed to render accounts from 2014 to 2019.
The committee’s decision was sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion by Rep. Fredrick Agbedi (PDP-Bayelsa) at an investigative hearing on Tuesday in Abuja.
The Chairman of the committee, Rep. Wole Oke (PDP-Osun) said that SON is being given an opportunity to answer audit queries and defend its none rendition of accounts for some financial years under review.
Oke ruled that they are to appear unfailingly on Friday by 11.a.m or the committee will be forced to invoke the relevant sections of the law.
“SON has refused to render account and even to appear before the committee for an investigation bothering on none rendition of account.
“This agency has repeated refused to appear before this parliament; we do not believe that SON is bigger than the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or above the law of the land.
“If they have nothing to hide, they should appear and tell us why they have refused to render account to the Auditor General of the Federation,” he said.
According to the lawmaker, SON is holding the auditor general of the federation hostage by not rendering accounts.
Oke explained that the committee had referrals from the green chambers to investigate issues bothering on none rendition of accounts by none treasury funded agencies.
He said that SON had been invited severally and the management had continued to dodge without explanations.
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