The House of Representatives has called for the appointment of a substantive Auditor General for the Federation (AuGF) in order to ease the oversight of ministries departments and agencies (MDAs) as regards their incomes and expenditures in conformity with extant laws.
Speaker Abbas Tajuddeen made the call at the unveiling of The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House on Monday.
The speaker who was represented by his deputy, Benjamin Kalu, said PAC is one of the most important committees of the House and its importance is clearly stated by Section 85 (5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
“The work of the PAC is complemented by the Office for the Auditor General of the Federation. It is in this light that the Auditor General’s Office needs to be occupied. The appointment should be in place because it is a requirement of the constitution,” he said.
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He added, “We cannot afford to have an overseeing director in charge of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation. We call on Mr President to either confirm the person who is there or appoint any other qualified person to immediately take over the office to sign reports.”
On his part, the Chairman, Public Accounts Committee, Bamidele Salam, promised that the committee would attend to the 2019 and other Auditor General’s reports that are pending before the House.
Salam who rolled out a four-year operational plan for the PAC said in order to implement the recommendations and indictments in the Audit reports, a bill to create a tribunal for the implementation and sanctions had been presented to that effect.
