N500bn stuck in abandoned Federal audit reports – CSJ

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has said that over N500bn has not been properly accounted for in the previous years’ report of the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF), submitted to the National Assembly, due to a lack of enabling laws to compel and sanction Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) that ignore audit queries.

This was disclosed on Tuesday in Abuja at a stakeholders’ dialogue on the enactment of the Federal Audit Commission Bill, organised by the CSJ, the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programme of the British Council and the European Union (EU).

It was meant to draw up an advocacy strategies to engage the legislature and the executive for the enactment of the Federal Audit Commission Bill.

The Lead Director of the CSJ, Eze Onyekpere, a lawyer, said that if the amounts are reconciled and made available under a functioning audit law, it is more than the entire budget of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, which is the biggest ministry in the country.

Apart from the enactment of the Federal Audit Service Commission, the event was also to build capacity of civil society and the media to demand and monitor compliance of MDAs with the Audit laws; and support the office of the AuGF, Public Accounts Committees and MDAs to improve practice.

Onyekpere said that after the implementation of each budget cycle, it is the Auditor-General‘s duty to review whether Nigeria got value for money and whether the money was spent in accordance with appropriation, financial instructions and regulations, and public finance management laws.

“If you look at audit reports in previous years, you will see a whole lot of money running into billions of Naira, which have not been properly brought into accounts. So it is a weak part of the chain in public finance management, and unfortunately, despite the reforms going on, not much has been done in audit reforms.

“The costs of not passing the bill, given the Auditor-General’s report for previous years are now running in excess of N500bn, which have not been brought to account,” Onyekpere said.

According to him, the bill will help the country plug-in the leaking pipes of corruption, and moved up to the Public Accounts Committee in the National Assembly, with recommendations if fully-implemented, will be recovering between N100bn and N200bn yearly, which presently are going into waste,” he said.

He added, “If you cause a loss to the treasury, you will have to make good the loss and if you neglect your duties, you face sanctions. The auditor’s office is not politicized and if any government is looking for materials to do anti-corruption war, the office will have enough details from the professional accountants and auditors, who will look at how the money was spent.”

On his part, the Executive Director, Media Rights Advocacy (MRA), Mr. Edetaen Ojo, said the bill was introduced to the National Assembly as a private member’s bill, and went through legislative processes, including public hearing, passed by the lawmakers, but President Olusegun Obasanjo did not sign it before leaving office in 2007.