President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday urged all Auditors-General to support the Federal Government’s fight against corruption in the country to improve the country’s public finance efficiency and facilitate broad-based national development.
The President, who gave the charge at the 2018 Conference of Auditors-General in Nigeria in Abuja, said that tremendous achievements had been recorded in all three areas of security, corruption and revamping of the nation’s economy, which were the focus of his administration.
Represented at the forum by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, the President pointed out that that the desired success in the fight against corruption was yet to be attained, hence the need for all stakeholders’ commitment to the agenda.
He charged the Auditors-General to enthrone transparency and accountability in the public sector to deepen the fight against corruption.
The President said: “In other jurisdiction, audit institutions, constantly produce reports on progress, across various facets of public enterprise as a matter of routine. I therefore, urge you to take this role very seriously; as it has a direct impact on our development as a nation and what we make from our limited resources.
“I want to emphatically state that your constitutional duty and responsibility to stop corruption even before it happens is very unique, especially with the independence that it guarantees many feared killed as violence erupts in C/River.
“At the end of this conference you are expected to come up with recommendations that will help you perform these roles more efficiently. And the government will continue to provide the required support in recognition of the critical roles auditors’ play in governance,” Buhari added.
According to him, the present administration has introduced several measures to achieve certain minimum improvement in governance and public financial management.
He listed some of the fiscal measures as including, State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programme (SFTAS), in which 700 million dollars would be made available as grants to states. He said a similar sum of 50 million dollars in technical assistance would be made available to key agencies within the states to build capacity.
The President explained that the measures would encourage the auditors to key into the opportunities. He restated the importance of auditors as constitutional watch dogs, saying they ought to be vigilant, independent, above politics and must report their findings without fear or compromise.
He clarified further: “As custodians of good governance, unless you perform well in your roles whatever is achieved in government may not be sustained. I emphasise this to leave you in no doubt about the significance of your role in the struggle for better governance, fight against corruption, hope for a better future for all Nigerians.’’
In his remarks, the Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Mr Kingsley Chinda, who represented the Speaker, urged the auditors to come up with a roadmap that would guide the National Assembly on achieving the SDGs, pointing out that without auditors, it will be impossible for the country to achieve the SDGs.
The lawmaker pointed out that the auditors were expected you to come up with a clear road map in achieving the SDGs.
In his opening address at the forum, the Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr Anthony Ayine, advocated the need to enact an Audit Act to help in the drive of the SDGs.
Ayine expressed optimism that the auditors at the end of the conference would come up with standardised formats of national reporting on SDGs implementation performance.
He said: “Will address issues of capacity building to position the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) to report on SDGs and agree on modalities for conducting co-operative audits where necessary among the SAIs.”
