Audit reports not to criminalise MDAs - FG

The Federal Government has said audit reports shouldn’t be based on criminalising ministries, departments and agencies but as a corrective measure for better financial management.

Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, stated this, yesterday, in Abuja at the launch of the 5-year (2017-2022) strategic development plan for the Office of the AuditorGeneral for the Federation (OAuGF).

She said the government wants to see the OAuGF work more with the MDAs in discharging their duties.

“We need to work harder together to improve the financial capacity of government. The idea is not who we can criminalise or jail but how we can work together,” she said.

Also speaking at the event, President Muhammadu Buhari, who was represented by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, called for effective audit system that ensured financial efficiency.

“Every moment we do not have an effective audit office we lose money. It is of good economic sense to sort out the funding of the national auditor general’s office. There is a lot to do; there is need to improve on capacity to keep pace with what is happening around the world,” he said.

“If there is ever a time that we need to reform the audit of the country, it is now. One of the key priorities of this administration is anticorruption but beyond this we must build institutions,” he said.

Earlier, Anthony Ayine, Auditor-General for the Federation, said the office was ready to chart a new path towards value adding services to the nation and effectively fulfill its constitutional mandate.