Reps blame endemic corruption on weak audit, account systems

House of Representatives, on Wednesday, blamed endemic corruption on the weaknesses in the nation’s auditing and accounting systems.

Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Bamidele Salam stated this during the 2024 budget defence/2025 budget proposal of the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF).

He noted that, the resultant pervasive corruption is depriving Federal Government of the 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.

“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 more impactful, to be more result-oriented.

“We believe very strongly that if the Auditor General’s office is well-funded and 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,” he noted.

While frowning at the poor implementation of the Capital Component of 2024 which he said has a negative effect on the overall governance system as well as development projections in the country, Hon. Salam said: “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, 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.

“And the only way we can do that, the first of the options we have as a country, is to block loopholes.”

The lawmaker also challenged the Auditor General to be up and doing in the submission of annual financial reports which he described as crucial to the workings of the National Assembly to keep the Executive Arm in check and ensure accountability.

According to him, the Committee had observed that Nigeria is lagging behind countries like Kenya as their Parliaments are far ahead in receiving audited financial reports.

Speaking earlier, Auditor General for the Federation, Mr. Shaakaa Chira who reeled out some of the challenges hindering the operations of the office, observed that, the office is grossly underfunded and understaffed to discharge its enormous responsibilities resulting in late compilation and submission of the annual reports.

Mr. Chira however argued that with adequate funding and increased staff, the office will overcome the challenges.

While assuring that the office is on track to address the backlog of the reports for submission, he said: “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 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”.

READ MORE FROM: NIGERIAN TRIBUNE