AuGF’s 2016 report
The 2016 Annual Report of the Office of the AuditorGeneral of the Federation (AuGF) which was submitted to the National Assembly recently highlighted many breaches of the law by MDAs. Among its key revelations is that 65 federal agencies have not audited their accounts since their inception many years ago while 76 last submitted theirs in 2010. Other features of the report are that 323 agencies defaulted in 2016, 215 defaulted in 2015 while 148 defaulted in 2014. Only 51 audited financial statements were submitted to the AuGF for 2016 and 149 were submitted for 2015 as at December 27, 2017. This is a clear breach of the Financial Regulations 321(V) which enjoins every agency of government to submit both the audited accounts and management report to the AuGF not later than May 31 of the following year.
This report shows that the rot in the country’s public service is endemic and deep rooted. It explains why corruption is so entrenched in this country. Audit processes are intended to check the procedures for managing funds by those to whom such is entrusted. It is for this reason that audit of public institutions is provided for in the extant laws of the country. However, when in the face of such laws the audit processes are not carried out by any agency for several years, it suggests connivance between the auditors and top officials of that government agency. The implication is that such defaulting agencies were just provided the leeway to collect public funds for sharing among unauthorized beneficiaries.
The report therefore provides the basis for indicting the past leaders and operatives of the Office of the AuGF along with the defaulting chief executives. Considering that the law provides for stringent sanctions on the chief accounting officers of such agencies as well as withholding of fresh financial releases to them for breaching audit regulations, it is surprising that such infractions are still widespread. Unless they can provide proof to the contrary, officials of AuGF’s office are as guilty as the chief executives of the defaulting agencies in this felony.
The National Assembly’s insistence on submission of audited reports by MDAs as a condition for approval of the 2018 budget provisions was cited as one of the causes of delay in the budget’s passage. With these revelations by the AuGF report, Nigerians are now seeing that insistence in a new light. The report also highlights the challenge facing the present administration in its fight against corruption in the country’s public sector. The anti-corruption fight cannot possibly make headway when the accounts of government agencies are not audited.
While much of the committed audit infractions can be attributed to past administrations, many agencies are in default between 2015 and the time of the report, which is within the period that the current administration has been waging the anti-corruption campaign. Such agencies have shown themselves to be incorrigible and are working at cross purposes with the administration’s anti-corruption fight.
The culture of breaching, in fact ignoring, audit processes by MDAs must be brought to an end as a very important step in the anti-corruption campaign. As long as accounts are not audited, the message is that heads of agencies are free to do what they want with public funds and their infractions will never be discovered. A critical step in this direction is the need to track the money lost in the process of these breaches. The government should go after these erring chief executives of the defaulting agencies, the history of the crimes notwithstanding. After all money always has a track record.
The National Assembly should also ensure the enforcement of all extant regulations with respect to the development of a robust audit regime including withholding further statutory allocations to erring agencies of government. Any agency or officer that cannot account for last year’s money entrusted to his/her care, should not receive any public funds this year.