W’Bank to assist Nigeria strengthen audit process

The World Bank Group on Thursday unveiled plans to assist the Federal Government to strengthen the audit process in the public sector.

The Director, Governance Global Practice, World Bank Group, Mr. Edward Olowo-Okere, stated this when he led a delegation of the bank to meet with the Auditor-General for the Federation, Mr. Anthony Ayine.

Olowo-Okere stated that while the Federal Government had taken steps to ensure transparency and accountability in the area of public financial management, there was a need to improve the whole audit process.

For instance, he said while the 1999 Constitution stipulated that audit reports must be submitted by the auditor-general to the National Assembly, it usually takes a lot of time for the reports to be considered by the Public Accounts Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives.

He described the time lag between when audit reports were submitted and when they were approved as worrisome, adding that such delays were robbing the country of the needed impact of the audit reports.

Olowo-Okere said, “We want to support the process so that the accounts are completed on time and laid before parliament, and the parliament also is able to do their own part of reviewing the audited accounts and take action on time and also with the executive arm responding to those recommendations that have been made by the public accounts committee.