The Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI) has commended the Federal Government of Nigeria on the recent approval of the request to review remuneration for the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation. The request was approved alongside 14 others by the Presidential Committee on Salaries (PCS) on 27th June 2022.
While we commend the Federal Government on this significant development, we urge the government to accelerate implementation of the reviewed salary structure to enhance the purchasing power of federal auditors, boost their commitment to work and support them to shun possible inducement by auditees.
However, it is important to mention that the gains from the current review of salaries of federal auditors will be better consolidated if the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation is empowered to maximally deliver on its mandate through the enactment of modern Audit Law. It is vital to acknowledge that the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation is the foremost accountability institution in Nigeria and all necessary support including financial and administrative autonomy must be accorded to enable it to function effectively. The absence of audit legal framework has impacted negatively on the Nigerian economy and is responsible for revenue leakages, expenditure inefficiency, lack of transparency and accountability in the use of public resources within Ministries, Departments & Agencies (MDAs).
Olusegun Elemo, the Executive Director at PLSI emphasized further that “it is a good move by the federal government to review the salary of federal auditors, but a new audit law has the greater potential to prevent corruption, foster accountability, and pace up development in Nigeria. Public officials need to be more fiscally responsible in how they manage and utilize our collective resources and it has become even more imperative to enact a new audit law given the fiscal crisis we’ve found ourselves as a country”.
We urge the Executive and National Assembly to collaborate as they’ve always done to swiftly enact a new audit law for the good governance and development of Nigeria.
