By James Emejo
The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Ahmed Idris, Wednesday warned ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government against clear violation of the provision of financial regulations.
He said henceforth, heads of internal audit of such defaulting agencies will be duly sanctioned for financial infractions.
Speaking at the opening of the virtual meeting with directors/heads of internal audit of MDAs in Abuja, the AGF regretted that most MDAs were lagging behind in filing their reports, while others had wilfully refused to render financial reports in clear violation of the provision of the financial regulations.
Ahmed said: “Consequently, may I inform you that refusal to forward these reports by any MDA forthwith would be regarded as an attempt to undermine the authority of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the head of internal audit of such defaulting MDA(s) will be duly sanctioned.”
However, he said his office was partnering with private consultants towards modernising the internal audit function in the public sector with a view to recommending measures to increase professional performance of internal auditors in accordance with internationally recognized best practices.
He said some of the recommendations of the consultants included enhancing the effectiveness of internal audit functions and establishment of a professional cadre within the public service for internal auditors as against the current practice.
The AGF said significant progress had been recorded towards the audit modernisation project especially in trainings of audit monitoring department staff to assist in training other internal auditors on Computer Assisted Audit Techniques (CAAT).
He said the efforts had further led to the establishment of an audit data capturing centre with a view to securing an interface with the IPPIS and GIFMIS platforms through which transaction can be viewed online-real-time.
He said 20 laptops and 20 desktop computers have been acquired for the purpose, among other things.
