Experts Seek Media, Auditors’ Synergy to Fight Corruption, Fraud in Govt

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin  City

In order to entrench accountability and transparency in the expenditure of public funds by the executives of the three-tiers of governments, media and financial experts have called for a coordinated synergy between the media practitioners and auditors.

 The experts in a two-day workshop on Audit Reporting organised for journalists in Benin City at the weekend by the FrontFoot Media Initiative, noted that the synergy will ensure that the governed have access to information on how their local government chairmen, governors and president make use of public funds entrusted in their care at the end of every fiscal year.

The training was a collaborative media engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability Project, a targeted training of journalists, with support from the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WScIJ) and the MacArthur Foundation.

The media and financial experts which comprises Sully Abu, Chido Nwakanma, Emeka Izeze and Sonala Olumhense, as well as financial experts like Chief Chukwuemeka Joe-Nsika and  Mr. Godswill Omenogor were unanimous in their submissions that the synergy between the two professions will ensure that those in governments audit their financial accounts as when due at the end of every fiscal year and also make same available for the media for the purpose of reporting.

They opined that would ensure accountability and transparency in the management and expenditures of public funds thereby eliminating corruption and fraud in the government establishments and the  financial system.

 In his presentation titled: “Understanding Budgets and Public Sector Finance”, Chief Chukwuemeka Joe-Nsika, a fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants called on journalists and state auditors-general to always follow the dictates of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution to do proper audit and reporting.

 Joe-Nsika, who said the media was expected to comply with Section 22 of Chapter 2 of the constitution to ensure that citizens get the information they needed, added that at the completion of its duties, the auditors-general will report their  findings to the state Houses of Assembly.

 He urged auditors to stay ethical in their audit engagements and to sign only audits that align with their professional, ethical, and moral standards.

 On his part,  Omenogor, a chartered accountant and auditor, asserted that there could only be clamours in the fight against corruption in Nigeria if all relevant stakeholders effectively adhere to processes and procedures as enshrined in the extant laws and related gazettes, provided all relevant functionaries need to objectively carry out their respective functions.

 Earlier, renowned journalist,  Sonala Olumhense, urged auditors-general to play a crucial role in promoting accountability as they were empowered by the constitution.

Olumhense, in his paper, “Audit Reporting Imperative for Nigerian Journalism”, explained that auditor-general of a state is appointed by the governor on the recommendation of the State Civil Service Commission and confirmed by the House of Assembly.

Olumhense, who however posited that an auditor-general is not accountable to the governor or supervised by the governor or any other authority, added that that he is an independent institution on his own.

He listed six pillars of the legal and professional authority of auditors-general, explaining that the auditor general has the authority to undertake periodic checks of all government statutory corporations, commissions, authorities, agencies, including all persons and bodies established by any law of the House of Assembly of that State.

In his opening remarks, former Managing Director and Editor of New Age Newspaper and the African Guardian, Sully Abu, charged journalists to be courageous, ethical, and conscientious in unfolding the contents of audit reports.

Also, a former Managing Director and Editor of the Guardian Newspaper, Mr Emeka Izeze, spoke on the various pathways the participants could generate needed information, seeking genuine creativity in reportage of subjects such as the audit reports of states.

The two-day audit reporting training x-rayed that the state government audit reports is a flagship capacity development programme of FrontFoot Media Initiative.