DESPITE his vaunted anti-corruption stance, the President, Major General, Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has failed to sign the Federal Audit Bill, two years after it was presented to him for assent.
The bill, which was passed by the eighth National Assembly, aims to give legal backing to the Auditor-General of the Federation for effective auditing of all revenues accruing to the federation and expenditures.
It also empowered the Auditor General of the Federation to issue an arrest warrant and penalise officials and agencies which refused to submit their financial statements for audit.
But the Presidency has kept mum over the bill which was passed in 2018 and submitted for assent in January 2019.
Commenting on the failure of the President to sign the bill into law, a former Nigerian ambassador to Austria, Jerry Ugokwe, said Buhari had not communicated to the National Assembly his reason for not assenting the bill.
Ugokwe, who spoke at a breakfast session with journalists on the Federal Audit Bill, organised by the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative in Abuja on Friday, said the nation was still operating the obsolete Audit Ordinance Act of 1956.
The retired envoy alleged that the President was prevented from assenting the new audit bill by about 10 agencies, which he said refused to attend the public hearing on the bill.
“It is sad that the agencies which refused to attend the public hearing on the bill went to prevail on the President not to sign it into law. It is more disheartening that the National Assembly lacked the courage to override the President,” he noted.
Speaking on the race for the office of the AuGF, the Executive Director, Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative, Mr Olusegun Elemo, said that the states Auditors-General and other qualified professionals were being excluded from contesting for the vacant position by the Federal Government.
Noting that the process for contesting for the AuGF was opaque, he said this might be a ploy to reserve the position for a pre-selected candidate.
Elemo called on the President to assent the Federal Audit Bill, which he said would help in preventing corruption, rather than “fighting corruption.”
PUNCH