The Auditor-General for the Federation (AuGF), Anthony Mkpe Ayine, has identified the poor implementation of audit recommendations contained in the Auditor-General’s inspections and annual audit reports as a major constraint to efforts aimed at sanitizing the nation’s public sector.
Ayine made this disclosure when he hosted a delegation from the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) led by its Executive Secretary, Sharon Ikeazor, at the Audit House in Abuja.
The AuGF maintained that implementing the recommendations contained in the Audit Inspection Report to management of MDAs and Annual Audit Reports would curb graft and promote a more transparent and accountable public sector system in the country.
He lamented that it was worrisome that audit findings were usually not acted upon by those who should act on them to enable the benefits of the findings’ implementation accrues to the public service.
Ayine said: “The impact of audit work is in the value it adds by creating improvement in the system and to re-echo President Muhammadu Buhari’s words, if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us. The fight against corruption cannot be won by any single individual or organisation; we must collaborate.”
The Auditor-General also stressed the need for strong internal controls in the public service as a desirable step to minimize wastages and by so doing, improve the efficiency of the system
He commended the Executive Secretary of PTAD for her efforts in repositioning the office, noting that there have been remarkable achievements recorded since she took over the reins of power and assured her that the OAuGF would continue to provide relevant support to her work.
Earlier in her remarks, Ikeazor told the Auditor-General that PTAD had acted on the recommendations of the OAuGF’s annual report and a personnel audit carried out in 2015 which led to the disengagement of four directors who had been irregularly employed when they were above the age of 50 years.
She also sought the advice of the Auditor-General on the recovery of monies that were paid to the affected directors during the time of their engagement.
The PTAD boss also requested that more auditors be deployed to Directorate to support the ongoing Parastatal Pensioner Verification Exercise, as federal auditors previously sent to it had been helpful in saving the government billions of Naira that could have been fraudulently diverted.
