The Nigerian Senate has suspended the 2025 budget defence for the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation (OAGF).
The development means the office may get zero allocation, as the Senate had earlier set Wednesday, January 22, 2025, as the deadline for budget defences.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Ahmed Wadada, expressed his disappointment with the Auditor-General, S.K Chira, and his team.
Chira appeared before the committee unprepared and was unable to answer questions regarding the 2024 budget performance of his office.
To make matters worse, it was discovered that the budget documents being reviewed by the Auditor-General were different from those provided to the committee members. The discrepancy led to anger among the senators, who felt that Chira’s lack of preparation was unacceptable.
However, Wadada has said the office has a chance of coming back for appraisal.
He said, “It is left for the Auditor General for the Federation to go get prepared and return, even in two hours now that he has been told that Wednesday is the deadline.
“He is the Auditor General auditing government agencies; Senate Public Accounts Committee is statutorily empowered to audit his office.”
(Politics Nigeria)