James Emejo in Abuja
The Auditor General for the Federation (AuGF), Mr. Anthony Mkpe Ayine, has said the poor implementation of audit recommendations contained in the auditor-general’s inspections and annual audit reports remains a clog in the wheel of efforts to rid the country’s public sector of corruption.
Speaking when he received a delegation from the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) led by its Executive Secretary, Sharon Ikeazor, which paid him a courtesy visit, he said implementing the recommendations contained in the Audit Inspection Report to management of MDAs and Annual Audit Report would serve as deterrent and promote a more transparent and accountable system.
He, however, regretted that audit findings were largely not acted upon to enable it add value to the public service.
He 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 AuGF further stressed the need for strong internal control in public service which he said was the responsibility of the management of MDAs and urged them to live up to this task.
He commended the PTAD boss for her efforts in repositioning the office, noting that there have been remarkable achievements recorded since she took over the reins of power and assured her that the OAuGF would continue to provide relevant support to her work.
Ikeazor, had earlier informed Ayine that PTAD had acted on the recommendations of the OAuGF’s annual report and a personnel audit carried out in 2015 which led to 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 treasury.
She also requested that more auditors are deployed to PTAD to support the ongoing Parastatal Pensioner Verification Exercise, saying federal auditors previously sent to the agencies were useful and helped in saving the government billions of naira that could have been fraudulently diverted.
