Senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity Malam Garba Shehu disclosed this to State House journalists.
He said the president was not happy that standard operating procedures and financial regulations were no longer observed in the public service.
The president, he said, was “irrevocably” committed to tackling administrative and bureaucratic corruption head-on.
“The era of impunity is gone. The president is taking the war on corruption to the civil service. He is not happy that standard operating procedures and financial regulations are no longer being observed as they should.
“President Buhari will ensure that public officials and civil servants … pay a heavy price from now on for violating financial regulations or disregarding audit queries.
“On his watch, President Muhammadu Buhari wants to see firm action against those who violate extant financial regulations, and the prevarications and shenanigans that went on in the past in the form of endless probes and public inquiries.”
The president had, therefore, directed the Auditor-General of the Federation to ensure that all outstanding audit queries are conclusively resolved within 30 days, Garba said.
He said Buhari had also ordered that henceforth, all audit queries must be answered within 24 hours.
He said the orders followed Buhari’s displeasure on hearing that audit queries remained unanswered for long periods, sometimes running into years, under previous administrations.
He said Buhari was determined to end the situation in which rather than respond to legitimate audit queries, public servants violating financial regulations resorted to threatening, bribing or mounting other forms of social pressure on auditors.
President Buhari had promised during the election campaign period that he would fight graft head on, describing the level of corruption in the country as intolerable.
Since he assumed office, Buhari has push ahead with efforts to recover the billions stolen in the recent past by government officials.
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