The Senate has advised the Federal Government to invest more in preventing corruption by funding the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation if it is truly committed to ending corruption in the country.
The chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Matthew Urhoghide stated this in Abuja on Wednesday when the Auditor General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine, appeared before it for the 2019 budget defence.
Urhoghide stressed that it would be difficult for the government to achieve any meaningful results in its fight against corruption when the office of the Auditor General, which should prevent the act of indiscipline, is underfunded.
He wondered why the government earmarked a whooping N22 billion to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the 2019 budget as against N3 billion for the Auditor General’s Office.
“If this administration really wants to achieve much in transparency and probity of public funds, it is better to invest in stopping corruption instead of fighting it,” he said.
The lawmaker, however, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently sign into law the Federal Audit Bill before him to give strong legal backing to the fight against corruption in Nigeria.
This, he added, would guarantee operational independence of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
He said, “When the Bill is passed into law, the Auditor-General shall be vested with additional powers to inquire into, examine, investigate and report as he considers necessary on the expenditure of public monies and money advanced or granted to a private organization or body in which the federal government has controlling interest.
“The administrative autonomy will enable the OAuGF to attract quality human capital at competitive standards for improved efficiency; as recruitment of members of staff will now be conducted professionally by the Federal Audit Service Commission”.
Earlier, Ayine told the panel that his office plans to recruit about 1,000 new staff this year to further improve the performances of the Office, saying some of them would retire and needed to be replaced so as not to create vacuum.
He said the poor funding of the office, saying this has negatively affected its performance.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
