Cight civil society organisations have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Federal Audit Service Commission Bill passed by the 8th National Assembly since January this year into law.
They said the bill, when passed into law by the president, would help in the Federal Government’s fight against corruption.
The CSOs made the appeal in a statement jointly signed by the Executive Director, Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI), Olusegun Elemo; Principal Lead, BudgIT, Gabriel Okeowwo; Chief Executive Officer, Connected Development, Hamzat Lawal and Chief Executive Officer, Basic Rights Watch, Austin Ekwujuru.
Others included: Deputy Director, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), Kolawole Oluwadare; Director, Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), Oluwatosin Alagbe; Executive Director, Step Up Nigeria, Onyinye Ough and Executive Director, Order Paper, Oke Epia.
PLSI’s executive director, Elemo, who conveyed the message of the CSOs during a briefing on Thursday in Abuja, explained that Buhari’s assent to the bill would ensure that public resources are efficiently managed.
Elemo also said that a presidential assent would provide for a first-line charge for the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation and ensure administrative independence for the office.
The executive director said that the existing audit laws, including the pre-independence Audit Ordinance Act of 1956 and Public Account Committee Act, CAP P35, LFN 2004 cannot deal effectively with modern corruption challenges that the country is fighting.
He said: “We believe that signing this bill into law will among other things increase citizens engagement in the audit process and management of public funds through making audit reports publicly available.
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