NITDA clearance, a must on IT projects, Auditor General tells MDAs

The Auditor General of the Federation, Mr Anthony Mkpe Ayine, has directed staff of his office to henceforth request clearance by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on any IT project when auditing the accounts of MDAs.

The Federal Government in a circular, SGF/6/S.19/T/65 of April 18, 2016, mandated Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to seek clearance from NITDA before deploying any IT project in the country.

This informs Mr Ayine’s directive yesterday at the Audit House Abuja when the management of NITDA, led by the Director General, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, paid a working visit in furtherance of collaborative drive to ensure value for money on procurement of IT goods and services in the country.

Mr Ayine stated that “The Office of Auditor General of the Federation would be pleased to collaborate with NITDA in the areas of development of standards and the regulation of the IT industry. Any MDA that introduces IT without NITDA’s clearance should be subjected to audit query,’’ he added.

He stated further that the law enabled NITDA to prosecute any violator of the Act, adding that efforts are ongoing to call violators to order and if they did not retrace their step, “We will be glad to press charges against them and commit them to jail terms.”

He added that “We need to support each other and collaborate in auditing IT projects. Most MDAs use IT projects to siphon public funds and auditing the IT projects in line with the Federal Government’s circular will help a lot in reducing this anathema.”

The NITDA boss revealed that the presidency has been supportive of the agency by redirecting the MDAs to seek clearance from it before embarking on any IT project.

He said the recent intervention of the Federal Executive Council on a memo from an MDA on IT project recently, saved the country N500 million.