THE Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has argued that granting independence and enforcement powers to the Auditor-General’s Office would ensure it functions optimally and enable it to muster enough power to sanction defaulting government agencies without interference.
The Centre expressed worry that over time, exposing graft by the Auditor-General’s Office was not followed with commensurate sanctions because of limitations of its powers in the current audit law.
The Lead Director for CSJ, Eze Onyekpere, who disclosed this at the official launch of the Audit Opportunities Assessment Study on Thursday, February 5, in Abuja, said Nigeria was borrowing more because there were no adequate sanctions for misappropriations revealed in audit reports.
“Our fellow African countries like Gambia, Sierra Leone and South Africa have embraced the independence of the Auditor-General’s Office. In our country, it’s a different scenario as the National Assembly that should push for the Federal Audit Service Bill are still singing “on your mandate we shall stand,” (a slogan indicating absolute loyalty to President Bola Tinubu”, “he said
In a strategic recommendation for strengthening Nigeria’s audit system, Onyekpere stressed the importance of the enactment of the Federal Audit Service Bill, which would grant statutory independence and enforcement powers, establishing the Auditor-General of the Federation Office as an autonomous constitutional authority.
He also suggested the need to amend sections 85-87 of the Constitution to compel executive and legislative responses within fixed timeliness, ensuring that audit findings trigger mandatory corrective actions.
Onyekpere urged the Budget Office to withhold funds from ministries, departments and agencies of government that are non-compliant with audit rules.
He further suggested multi-stakeholder oversight forums involving civil society organisations, media and development partners to strengthen external accountability and sustained public engagement.
Also in his submission, a senior official of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Charles Abana, suggested that the legislature, specifically internal and external auditors, should utilise the submissions in the study to support audit work in the country.
Earlier reports by The ICIR revealed auditor-general’s reports indictments on several agencies of the government, which have come with a tap on the wrist warning in most cases because of a lack of enforcement and prosecutorial powers.
Notably, the office of the Auditor-General of Nigeria has indicted the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) of N514 billion in fraud.
The allegation was contained in the 2021 Auditor-General’s annual report, published in November 2024 and released recently.
It disclosed that the NNPCL misappropriated funds and diverted revenue meant for the Federation in 2021.
A breakdown of the allegations revealed that the auditor-general indicted the NNPCL for unauthorised deductions of N82.9 billion from federation revenue for refinery rehabilitation.
It also knocked the state-owned oil company for its irregular deductions of funds from domestic crude sales at the source.
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.