Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ibrahim Dankwambo, has revealed that the Federal Government is owing N2,459,917,166,836.97 domestic debts as at December 31, 2008 and N612,059,434,836.97 in Nigeria Treasury Bills and other loans.

This was contained in his audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2008 signed on October 22, 2009 by the acting Auditor General of the Federation, G. F. Ogunsina.

The report was presented at the release of the statements of accounts and the launch of three other books, held in Abuja where the AGF said that the financial statement was last published in 2002.

According to him, others are unfunded first, second, third, fourth and fifth Federal Government of Nigeria, otherwise known as FGN bonds, which are N4,555,482,000.00, N357,082,802,000.00, N682,000,141,000.00, N401,961,157,000.00 and N402,258,150,000.00 respectively.

Also, the federal government's external debt within the period stood at $2,059,979,127.97 of which the details included a multilateral debt of $1,512,489,527.97 and Non Paris Club debt of $547,489,600.00.

The report also explained that during the year under review, the Presidency overshot its subvention by 100 per cent as it spent N62,117,175, 776.83 as against N30,117,789,903.00 earmarked for the purpose while the total personnel cost spent by the government within the period was N392,993,128,817.33 as against the budgeted sum of N467,366,167,972.00.

As for the outstanding imprest for the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the Federal Government said it owed them N66,694,588.73.

But it also said in the report that it recorded zero assets and liabilities, as the total assets and total liabilities had the same figure of N735,630,043,155.47.

As a result, the treasury was saddled with the responsibility of publishing the arrears of unpublished financial statements, he added.

"The financial statements of the Federal Government were last published for the year 2002. The treasury was therefore saddled with a backlog of these arrears of unpublished financial statements until now.

"This publication therefore marked a watershed in the history of the treasury in clearing all the backlog of the outstanding unaudited and unpublished financial statements of the federal Government.

"We would strive to maintain this outstanding record and ensure that henceforth these financial statements are published as they have been audited by the Auditor-General of the Federation," he said. Dankwambo pointed out that by compiling the compendium of the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursement from year 1999 to 2008 in two volumes also marked an important contribution to the government's initiative in laying a solid foundation for accountability and transparency.

The four publications that were released include, the revised financial regulations (revised to 2009), the financial statements of the Federal Government from year 2003 to 2008, a compendium of Federation Account Allocation Committee disbursements to the three tiers of government from 1999 to 2008 and bound copies of the Treasury Circulars for 10 years from 1999 to 2008.