1956 Audit Law Hinders Anti-Corruption War – Nigerians Task Buhari, Lawmakers

• Insist on strengthening OAuGF for effective service delivery

BY EDMOND ODOK – Except the Nigerian government moves boldly to amend the existing 1956 audit law, its fight against corruption in the country will continue to wobble and succeed only in half measures.

Consequently, President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s avowed anti-graft war is condemned to remain ineffective in an environment where the audit law is too weak and obsolete to bark and bite culprits perpetrating modern-day corruption.

The citizens’ alarm comes on the heels of an urgent demand to strengthen the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF) and effectively position it to fight corruption in all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of government.

In calling for the OAuG to be strengthened for effective service delivery during an anti-corruption radio programme, PUBLIC CONSCIENCE, produced by the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development (PRIMORG) in Abuja, speakers challenged the government and citizens to take responsibility for sanitising the financial system of corrupt practices on all fronts.

Speaking on the programme, the Programme Manager, Public Finance Management, Center for Social Justice Nigeria (CSJN), Fidelis Onyejegbu, urged President Buhari to push for the passage of a new audit bill, noting that such arrangement will represent a significant boost in the anti-graft fight.

Onyejegbu while underscoring the importance of a brand new audit law, said; “We need a new audit law, which is not up for debate. But one thing we also need to do is to see what best way to promote trust.

“If the government does not improve the trust or try to bridge the trust deficit between the leaders and the led, it will be difficult to govern at any level. Citizens want to hear fewer issues of missing funds, then you can build trust, then govern, and you cannot do all of these without a new audit law that would oversee the expenditure of public resources.”

According to him, the average Nigerian is after huge government expenses translating into good roads and hospitals, adding; “All of these (basic amenities) cannot be provided without public resources working for the people, and how can that happen when expenditures are not scrutinized using the tool of more modern audit legislation?”

Onyejebu, who said things would readily fall in place when the president signs a new audit bill into law, called for inquiries to determine why all past audit bills failed to materialise since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999.

Hear him; “On three occasions, bills have been introduced and approved at the highest level, and it was at the desk of the president that they fell through. So, what we need to do now is to dig deeper and find out why those bills were not approved, address those reasons why they said no’ agree on what we want to do, and then come back because it is unheard of that a law of 1956 is still the law we are making reference to in 21st-century auditing.”

In the same vein, the Executive Editor at Forefront Magazine, Cobham Nsa, insisted that the government must make getting a new audit law for the nation its top priority.

Nsa is concerned that the interest of political leaders has remained a major constraint why the AuGF office is underperforming, even as he lamented that Nigerians are still suffering from financial improprieties happening at various MDAs due to complicity in the financial system.

For him, past and current administrations’ reluctance to strengthen federal auditing processes over the years is clearly deliberate to avoid their indictment through faithful implementation of the Auditor General’s report.

His words: “Nigerians have suffered hugely from this lack of implementing the Auditor General’s report. But you have to look at it in the context of the system we are operating. Someone appoints the Auditor General, and he reports not directly to the person but to the parliament. There are constitutional issues, legal issues, and even political issues around it.

“I believe that appointment into the office should be thrown open; people should apply for it, with an independent panel instituted to interview all applicants rather than having an individual as the appointing officer. Consciously or subconsciously, you would want to owe allegiance to the man who appointed you.”

Further stressing the need for stakeholders to turn a new leaf, the Forefront Editor said; “A new audit bill should be a top priority and the budgeting process too”, adding; “The law is important and citizens should take responsibility in asking questions about the audit law”.

Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio program that enjoys support from the MacArthur Foundation and is deployed by PRIMORG to draw government and citizens’ attention to corruption and integrity issues in Nigeria.