New Accountant-general Promises To Shun Corruption, Digitise Treasury Activities

Newly appointed Accountant-general of the Federation (AGF) Dr Sekirat Madein has warned that she will not condone any act of corruption from anybody in the Treasury House under her watch as Accountant General of the Federation. Madein said she is particularly embarrassed by allegations of corruption rocking the Treasury House.

The new AGF made the remarks yesterday on her formal resumption of duty as the substantive Accountant-general of the Federation.

She replaced Sylva Okolieaboh who was appointed in acting in June, 2022. He acted for 11 months and now due to leave the civil service of the federation on Sunday 28th May, 2023 when he will be 60 years old.

There had been several allegations of corruption around the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) which Madein expressed displeasure about, saying the Treasury has suffered some turmoil in the recent past “and the Treasury will move from strength to strength. We should be guided by zero tolerance to corruption and be dedicated to service and how to generate revenue for the federal government.”

As part of models to ensure effective service delivery by her staff, Madein promised to prioritise training of staff, staff welfare and capacity building as well as strive to fully digitize treasury activities especially the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) and Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).

“Our operations will be in conformity with extant laws and regulations so that when next they talk about Treasury House it will be for good,” she told a gathering of staff and some former Accountant-generals of the Federation who were on ground to receive her.

Former governor of Gombe State who is also a former Accountant-general of the Federation, Mr. Ibrahim Hassan Danwkambo told the new AGF that she has her work cut out for her. “There is work for you,” he stated. First, he made a case for Sylva Okolieaboh by urging the new AGF and staff of the treasury to canvass for Okolieaboh to be pronounced a substantive AGF.

Dankwambo said a precedence already exists in the Treasury when A.B Ogunsanya was made acting AGF because he had a short time to stay before retirement. To compensate him, the government of Goodluck Jonathan pronounced him a substantive AGF before he retired.

Based on this precedence, Dankwambo and his predecessor Mr. Kayode Naiyeju both appealed to the federal government to consider making Okolieaboh a substantive AGF.

Dankwambo and Naiyeju also complained about what they called systematic stripping of the Treasury of its entities. They both lamented that there have been sustained maneuvers from outside to strip the Treasury of its units.

Already the Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) and the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MoFI) have been removed from the Treasury.

Both former AGFs are worried that current attempts to take Integrated Payment and Personal Information System (IPPIS) and the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) might also be taken away from the Treasury House.

Earlier into the discussions, Okolieaboh said that for the 11 months he acted as AGF, “I worked without any iota of certainty about when my tenure will be over. As a result, I have seen every single day of the past 365 days as my last day in office.

“While that mindset makes it easy to cope with the uncertainty; it was very costly for the office. An institution of this magnitude should not be run on day-by-day basis.”