Runsewe Writes Auditor-General, Says Report Indicted Predecessor, Not Him

Runsewe Writes Auditor-General, Says Report Indicted Predecessor, Not Him

The Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Olusegun Runsewe, has written the Auditor-General of the Federation over an audit report that indicted his agency.

In a letter dated January 2 to the Auditor-General, Anthony Anyine, Mr Runsewe expressed deep concern at what he regarded as image tarnishing reports making rounds that he was indicted and undergoing an investigation for a multi-million naira scam.

“I would like to draw the attention of the Auditor-General for the Federation to an online publication that claimed that the Director-General of National Council for Arts and Culture is under an investigation and has been indicted in a multi-million naira scam.

“We would normally have ignored such reports but considering the image of the organisation before the general republic,” he said in the letter.

It was reported how the 2017 audit report recently released by the auditor-general indicted the NCAC and its director-general of financial irregularities in contract awards and payments. According to the report, the financial irregularities were committed in 2015, 2016 and early 2017.

Mr Runsewe in a telephone interview said his concern was not about PREMIUM TIMES report but how people on social media and other blogs twisted the report without context.

In the letter to the auditor-general, Mr Runsewe said the contracts were awarded by his predecessor, as he only assumed office in 2017

“I would like to inform the Auditor-General for the Federation that I was appointed as Director-General of the Council in 2017. The reports, however, focused on 2016 and the early part of 2017 but the writers do not understand the difference between ongoing projects and new projects in Accounting procedure.

“In view of the above, I wish to respectfully request your good office to clear the air that the Director-General of National Council for Arts and Culture is not under any investigation or indictment, as the author of the report claimed. This will, of course, put the record straight,” he said.