Weak Auditing, Accounting Systems Encouraging Corruption – Reps

The House of Representatives has said the weaknesses in the auditing and accounting systems were encouraging corruption in the country.

The Chairman of the 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 pervasive corruption deprives the government of much-needed revenue, which is necessary for the government to function and deliver the necessary development in the country.

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

“The committee also made a few observations on the need for the Auditor General to expand its coverage of significant ministries, departments, and government agencies in a manner that will put greater attention on the places with more revenue.

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“Some major government agencies have not audited well in the last few years. If you don’t audit properly, you are indicating less attention paid to specific agencies, which may promote a lot of impunity 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 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 will work as a parliament in cooperation with our sister committees that directly oversee some of these agencies in a manner that will make the Auditor General’s work more impactful and result-oriented.

“We believe very strongly that if the Auditor General’s office is well-funded and well-staffed, corruption cases 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 2024 Capital Component, which he said has a negative effect on the country’s overall governance system and development projections.

“The implementation of the capital component of the 2024 budget has not been encouraging. We 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 various challenges are hindering the office’s operations.

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 that with adequate funding and increased staff, the office would overcome the challenges, assuring that it was on track to address the backlog of the reports for submission.

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

“By the 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.