Nigeria’s quest for good governance will become a reality when transparency and accountability become the watchwords of all public office holders in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s war on corruption.
The Auditor-General for the Federation, Mr. Anthony Mkpe Ayine, made this declaration on Friday in Lagos.
He was speaking at the opening of a two-day retreat hosted by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation in collaboration with the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly.
Stating that the citizens of any country were the “ultimate owners” of the country’s resources, which must be managed for their benefit by government, Ayine stressed that financial resources in particular were of special interest to all.
He said therefore that “when these resources are effectively, efficiently and economically managed for the benefits of the citizenry, good governance is said to exist.”
He declared: “But good governance rests on some key pillars,” saying “critical amongst them are transparency and accountability.”
According to the nation’s Auditor-General, “you cannot have good governance when these pillars (transparency and accountability) are lacking.”
While commending President Buhari “for his firm and principled stand on the anti-corruption war in Nigeria,” Ayine added that “corruption thrives under a hidden environment.”
Explaining that the concept of public accountability had a process, he stated: “Parliament entrusts government of the day with public funds; the government of the day in turn reports back to parliament how these resources have been used or utilised.”
He said in-between this process lay two critical bodies which were at the heart of public accountability, these being “the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAuGF).”
According to Mr. Ayine, as much of the work of the National Assembly was carried out by committees, one of the most powerful and important of such committees, was the Public Accounts Committee, which he said “is constitutionally provided for as a standing committee.”
He said further: “PAC essentially seeks to ascertain to what extent revenues have been collected and expenditure incurred in the manner government or the legislature approved or intended; PAC uses auditor-general’s report(s) and oversight functions to examine accounting officers and other persons entrusted with the receipts and utilisation of funds and other assets.
“At the end of its consideration of Auditor-General’s report(s), PAC submits a report of its conclusions and recommendations (guided by auditor-general’s recommendations) to the whole house, (the National Assembly).”
He added that ideally as it was the practice in developed economies, within 90 days of submission of PAC’s report and consideration by the National Assembly “the Executive Arm is required to respond in form of a memorandum, indicating what actions have been taken or proposed to be taken in relation to PAC’s findings and recommendations, thus completing the accountability cycle.”
He stated further that PAC’s scrutiny of the national accounts facilitated by the auditor-general’s report(s) “provides an integral part of public accountability.”
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, in a goodwill message delivered by the Chairman, House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee, Ogundu Kingsley Chinda, told the audience that:
“Transparency and accountability issues cut across tribe, religion, ethnicity, political party, country of origin; it’s like environmental issues. So, once it’s taking place in Nigeria, it affects any other person even in any other part of the world.”
According to him, the essence of government and governance was tied to transparency and accountability.
His words: “All the problems that we have in our country today, ranging from militancy to Boko Haram in the north east are all based on the issues of injustice, which is also hinged on transparency and accountability.
“If we are more transparent and more accountable, there is no doubt that we will be able to tackle almost all the problems that besiege us today. Nigeria is talking about restructuring; the only reason is because we are not sufficiently transparent in our transactions and in our relationship with one another.”
