Members of the House of Representatives Wednesday bemoaned poor funding of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAuGF) by the Budget Office, saying it has hampered the auditing of 801 federal agencies and parastatals as well as foreign missions across the world, since 2017.
Members expressed their dissatisfaction at an investigative hearing held at the instance of the House Committee on Public Accounts chaired by Hon. ‘Wole Oke.
The lawmakers also expressed displeasure over non-provision of required funds for the recruitment of 611 new staff needed to bridge the manpower shortfall in the office of the Auditor General of the Federation despite obtaining waiver from the Head of Service of the Federation since 2017.
To this end, they reached a resolution to summon the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed and the Director-General of Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Ben Akabueze.
Also to be summoned were the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Ahmed Idris; the Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan and the Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission. Speaking dying the hearing, Oke as the situation was unacceptable to them.
He said the OAuGF was struggling to survive, wondering how it will effectively and efficiently carry out its functions. The Committee, therefore, mandated the Accountant General of the Federation to immediately release all the funds required owed the Office in the 2020 budget before the end of the fiscal year.
Oke said: “A very critical professional body is being under-funded. Even in fund allocation for the budget, the Director-General of the budget office has intentionally, deliberately underfunded the office of the Auditor-General so that he won’t be able to discharge its duties and uncover all the illegal criminal activities and looting going on in the country.
“On what basis would you be funding agencies that have no value to the economy at the detriment of the Auditor General office? “From the presentation of the Auditor General is understaffed, he needs over 600 workers.
It will interest you that the entire Zamfara State has just on staff; one staff in Zamfara State. How do we run a country like this?