Weak Auditing, Accounting Systems Encouraging Corruption —Reps

The House of Representatives has identified weaknesses in the auditing and accounting systems as factors encouraging corruption in the country.

Chairman, Public Accounts Committee of the House, Hon. Bamidele Salam stated this at the budget defence session with the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF).

Salam noted that the resultant pervasive corruption is depriving government of much needed revenue to function and deliver the needed development in the country.

He said, “There are a lot of monies that ought to accrue to government that we are losing as a result of weaknesses in our accounting systems, weaknesses in auditing, weaknesses in general financial management architecture. And this also has reflected even in the budget performance of the Auditor General’s office.

“The committee raised a few observations also on the need for the Auditor General to expand its coverage of major Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government in a manner that will put greater attention on the places that have more of the revenue.

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“There are some of the major agencies of government that have not been well audited in the last couple of years. And if you don’t audit properly, you are giving an indication that there is less attention on certain agencies and that may promote a lot of impunity happening in those agencies.

“And we decided, even though the Auditor General has limitations because of budgetary constraints, because of personnel constraints, the office is mandated to audit almost 1,000 Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government, do periodic audits, appoint auditors for those that they are not going to audit directly.

“And all this will require a lot of resources and manpower. We saw these gaps again in the presentation made today, and we are going to work as a parliament in cooperation with our sister committees that directly oversight some of these agencies in a manner that will make the work of the Auditor General to be more impactful, to be more result-oriented.

“We believe very strongly that if the Auditor General’s office is well-funded, if the Auditor General’s office is well-staffed, cases of corruption will be minimised drastically in Nigeria. We will be preventing corruption rather than fighting corruption after it happens. And that is the direction that we are looking into”.

Salam also decried the poor implementation of the capital component of the 2024 budget which he said has a negative effect on the overall governance system as well as development projections in the country.

“The implementation of the capital component of the 2024 budget has not been encouraging. We have expressed this observation when we had a meeting with the Accountant General of the Federation about a week ago, that we think that there is a need for our government to work more on the revenue side of budgets in a manner that will make us less dependent on borrowing,” he added.

In his presentation, the Auditor General for the Federation, Shaakaa Kanyitor Chira told the committee that there are various challenges hindering the operations of the office.

He noted that the office was grossly underfunded and understaffed to discharge its enormous responsibilities resulting in late compilation and submission of the annual reports.

Chira however said with adequate funding and increased staff, the office will overcome the challenges, assuring that his office was on track to address the backlog of the reports for submission.

“My commitment is to submit 2022 in the month of March. That’s the one that has to do with the non-compliance. That’s the domestic report.

“By first week of March, I will submit the results and that’s all, to also give you the consolidated financial report by February, then by the end of March, I will do it,” he noted.