Public Accounts Committee, PAC, of the House of Representatives has mulled administrative and financial autonomy for the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, OAuGF
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Oluwole Oke who is championing the cause said the independence was necessary due the functions and sensitivity of the office.
He said it will aid transparency and accountability in the financial systems of the country.
Oke while speaking at the 2022 Budget Defence session of he OAuGF said he was sponsoring a bill to that effect.
The lawmaker states that a situation where the auditor general’s report would state that between 2013 and 2020, the sum of N7 trillion was spent from the service wide vote on the OAuGF, the parastatals and agencies under it, without its knowledge was an infraction that would not be condoled.
He said that the independence of the OAuGF would granted that due process was followed to ensure accountability.
Oke advised the Office to lobby the increased budgetary allocation and to be placed on the first line charge.
He later constituted a 7-man sub committee, headed by Committee Deputy chairman with representatives from the 6 geo-political zones to work with OAuGF office to draft a report that would help to realize the first line charge.
Meanwhile, Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr Adolphus Aghughu earlier presented a budget of N9.64 billion for the year 2022 to the Committee.
