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Follow-up on audit recommendations

By Fidelis Onyejegbu

SIR: The auditing practice in Nigeria today appears to be a frustrating exercise in report writing. The auditor general produces a report which is sent to the Public Accounts Committees (PACs) of the National Assembly. The PACs conduct their hearings, conduct investigations if necessary, conclude their deliberations and produce yet another report. This report is sent to the president for action which seldom comes forth.

What happens to the recommendations in the first and second reports? Despite the provisions of the Financial Regulations (2000), there is hardly a follow-up on the audit recommendations. This circumstance provides the background for the repetition of infractions by agencies of government.

Audit is not an end in itself but an indispensable part of a regulatory system whose aim is to reveal deviations from accepted standards and violations of the principles of legality, efficiency, effectiveness and economy of financial management early enough to make it possible to take corrective action in individual cases; make those accountable to accept responsibility, obtain compensation or take steps to prevent or, at least, render such breaches more difficult.

The last set of requirements on the purpose of audit is generally lacking in the current Nigerian audit regime; corrective action appears not to follow individual cases of mismanagement; the treasury is hardly compensated and those responsible for the violations hardly accept responsibility. This has led to situations of impunity for violations of the laws. Thus, the Nigerian society neither gets guarantees of non-repetition, compensation nor have the offenders been punished.

Although doubts about the juridical validity of the 1956 Audit Act has been brought to the fore by the fact that it was omitted from the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, declaring an act or omission an offence without providing sanctions for same makes mockery of legal provisions. It reduces them to mere moral adjurations. In moral societies, such adjurations can have a stronger effect than offences without sanctions in a non-moral society like Nigeria. It is the recommendation of this discourse that a new audit regime should clearly provide for sanctions for breaches of the law. Some of the powers to sanction can be vested in the Auditor General of the Federation or the PACs. This power to sanction will not take away the prosecutorial powers of the attorney-general where severe violations of the criminal and financial laws have been disclosed by audit.

The new legal regime should also contemplate that yearly audit reports should have a section dealing with the activities of the MDAs dedicated to remedying defaults observed in previous audit reports. These reports should continue until the Auditor-General or PAC is satisfied with the steps taken in that direction. Other sanctions could include suspension of salaries, demotions and loss of rank, etc, of defaulting staff.

  • Fidelis T. Onyejegbu,

Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Abuja



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