The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation is a constitutional establishment with functions provided for in Section 85 and 87 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Section 85 (5) of the Constitution states thus: “The Auditor-General shall, within ninety days of receipt of the Accountant-General’s Financial Statement, submit his report under this section to each House of the National Assembly and each House shall cause the reports to be considered by a Committee of the House of the National Assembly responsible for Public Accounts”.
However, with rude shock and disbelief, our attention was drawn to an online publication by Premium Times of September 15, 2014, with the misleading caption: “Investigation: Auditor-General’s Report Indicts Ex-Head of Service, Oronsaye, for N123 Billion Fraud”.
Paragraph 5 of the said publication alleged that the Auditor-General submitted an audit report, which indicted an ex-Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, for N123 billion fraud, to the Government in 2012, without corresponding action from the Government.
A similar story was also published on page 12 of THISDAY Newspaper of Tuesday, September 16, 2014 and on page 5 of Daily Trust Newspaper of Wednesday, 17, 2014.
These publications, in all ramifications, are an embodiment of mischief and misrepresentation of facts of the matter.
Firstly, the Auditor-General for the Federation does not have the locus standi to forward any audit report for that matter to the Government because the Office is not permitted by the Constitution to do so.
It is therefore unconstitutional for the Auditor-General for the Federation to submit any report to Government as stated earlier in the Constitutional provision of Section 85 given above. The Auditor-General for the Federation is constitutionally mandated to forward audit reports to the National Assembly.
Secondly, the purported ‘Report’, which has so many misrepresentations (in the publication) was actually audit observation made by the audit team that conducted the audit exercise, which will require the responses of the auditee after which audit opinion may be drawn up. Besides, no mention of individual names was made in the audit observations, which were forwarded to the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, for comments.
Thirdly, at no time did the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation forward any report in respect of the above subject matter to the National Assembly to date. Audit observations regarding the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation have been forwarded to the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation for comments. We are yet to receive their written comments.
The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation is guided by the Constitution and therefore frowns at these publications, which are capable of misguiding Nigerians on the expenditure profile of Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
In the light of this ugly development, the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation totally and vehemently disassociates itself from the malicious and character-assassinating publications by Premium Times, THISDAY Newspaper and Daily Trust Newspaper and also condemns its intention.
(SIGNED)
MANAGEMENT
