Auditors urge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to quickly sign the new Federal Audit Service Bill to fast track government auditing.
The Audit experts who came to train journalists on basics of media audit reporting worried that government is not prioritizing auditing of government accounts.
This creates accountability issues in governance, they said.
Among the auditing issues the experts noted was that the Federal Government has not audited accounts since 2019, with no explanation.
Local governments also routinely fail to submit audit reports as stipulated in the 1999 Constitution, they said.
The National Assembly passed the Audit service bill in March 2023 but former President Muhammadu Buhari failed to sign it to replace the 1956 Audit Act.
Those that spoke at the workshop, organised by Frontfoot Media included Mr Ismaila Muhammadu Zakari, a past president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
Zakari led a team of other experts including Mr Babatunde Kolawole, ICAN Fellow and a partner at HLB Z.O. Ososanya and Mr Yusuf Doma, ICAN Fellow and Head of Internal Audit at Premium Pension Limited, Abuja, and Mrs Umeshie Bernadine Anikwe, an accountant and educationist.
Zakari volunteeted that local government audits are non-compliant with the ICAN Accountancy Index 2017.
He therefore suggested future constitutional amendments to make governors and the president take responsibility for presenting the respective audit reports to the legislature.
He said such a change would compel compliance with the deadlines for submission of the audit reports outlined in the constitution.
The Audit Reporting Training participants agreed that effective public sector auditing would enhance democracy in Nigeria by checking excesses and engendering citizen trust and confidence.
The Audit Reporting Training was held on 5 and 6 July 2023 at Reiz Continental Hotel, Abuja. It followed earlier ones at Benin City and Awka in 2022.
FrontFoot Media Initiative says the Audit Reporting Training is its flagship capacity development programme to promote democracy by equipping the media with skills and the ability to report on the mandatory state and federal Audit Reports.
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