Auditor-General Laments Poor Implementation Of Audit Report
The Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr Anthony Ayine, has said that the poor implementation of the recommendations in the audit report was slowing down the progress that ought to have been recorded in the fight against corruption.
He said this when a delegation from the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate led by its Executive Secretary, Sharon Ikeazor, paid a courtesy visit to his office.
Ayine said implementing the recommendations contained in the Audit Inspection Report to the management of agencies of government would serve as a deterrent and promote a more transparent and accountable system.
He lamented that while his office had submitted recommendations on its audit assignment to the National Assembly, its audit findings were usually not acted upon.
The implication of this, according to him, is that the value that ought to have been added to the financial management reforms of the Federal Government is being affected.
A statement from the agency quoted Ayine to have said, “The impact of audit work is in the value it adds by creating improvement in the system and to re-echo President Muhammadu Buhari’s words, if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us.
“The fight against corruption cannot be won by any single individual or organisation; we must collaborate.”
The Auditor-General also stressed the need for strong internal controls in the public service which he said was the responsibility of the management of Ministries, Departments and Agencies and urged them to live up to the task.
Ikeazor, according to the statement, told Ayine that PTAD had acted on the recommendations of the Auditor-General’s annual report and a personnel audit carried out in 2015 saw the disengagement of four directors who had been irregularly employed when they were above the age of 50 years.
The Executive Secretary also sought the advice of the Auditor-General in implementing the recovery of monies that were paid to the four dismissed directors during the time of their engagement and to return same to the treasury.
She also requested that more auditors be deployed to PTAD to support the ongoing parastatal pensioner verification exercise, as federal auditors previously have assisted in saving the government billions of naira that could have been fraudulently diverted.
