The National Assembly, on Wednesday, passed the Federal Audit Service Bill, which prescribes, among others, a five-year jail term for any accounting officer, who prevents the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation from accessing their account books.
The Senate concurred with the House of Representatives which had earlier passed the proposed legislation.
The Senate Leader, Ibrahim Gobir, led the debate for the concurrence which the Red Chamber approved after dissolving to the Committee of the Whole.
The Chairman, Senate Public Accounts Committee, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, told journalists that the bill, which was passed in the 8th Senate, seeks to strengthen the office of the Auditor General for the Federation.
The Office is supposed to check systemic corruption in Nigeria by checking all expenditures of the ministries, departments and agencies of government as provided for in Section 85 of the Constitution.
Uroghide said, “The Office of the Auditor General for the Federation is independent of the executive arm of government. He relates directly with the National Assembly.
“The second aspect of the bill is the establishment of the Federal Audit Commission to be able to recruit the proper staff, discipline and promotion.
“Audit is a very peculiar department but right now, we have those who did not study accounting being employed and working in the audit house, probably for political reasons.
“The commission will be responsible for the recruitment of proper staff that would be able to audit the accounts of the over 797 federal agencies.
“The country needs a proper workforce to be able to do that.”
He noted that the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation used to have over 3,000 workforce, which had now dwindled to 1,200.
Uroghide added that, “The first time we had an Audit Ordinance was in 1956. We have now changed a law that has been in place for over 60 years. More powers have been given to the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation.
“The least penalty that we have now in the bill for an individual is five-year imprisonment or a fine of N5m or both.
“For corporate agencies that refuse to audit their accounts for years, their fine is N20m, the house recommended N10m but we disagreed.”
