The President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR, recently commissioned the eight storey building office complex of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
The building is located at the Central Business District of Abuja and has 240 rooms. The structure is equipped with two giant 500KVA Standby Generators, Water treatment plants, two boreholes, three elevators and three inverters to power the elevators in case of power failure.
Declaring open the office complex, the President acknowledged the strategic position of the Auditor-General in the economy. He stated that the Auditor-General for the Federation should be strengthened in order to boost his administration’s fight against corruption.
He said that the acquisition of the office complex was a demonstration of his administration’s commitment to guarantee the independence of the Auditor-General’s office. This, according to him will not only guarantee accountability in the management of the nation’s resources, but also ensure that the fight against corruption is won.
The President commended the Auditor-General for the Federation for the successful realisation of the project in this important year of our centenary. He assured the Auditor-General that the government will do everything possible within the ambit of the law and available resources to support his office.
The President noted that if the Auditor-General for the Federation’s office is strengthened to carry out its functions very well, then even the institutions set up by government which look into corruption cases will have less work to do because they would have done the basic work. “From the result of the auditing, investigations becomes easier, I think this office need to be strengthened so that you will help Nigerians”.
The President commended the National Assembly for its consideration of the Audit Bills, noting that this would further help to guarantee the independence of the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
Welcoming Mr. President and other dignitaries to the event, the Auditor-General for the Federation, Mr. Samuel T. Ukura stated that the building was acquired 6 months after he assumed office as the Auditor-General for the Federation. Mr. Ukura commended the President for granting approval for the acquisition of the office complex and called for increase funding of his office.
He said that the office needed more funds in view of the increase in operational costs as a result of some new audit areas namely; Performance Audit, Forensic Audit, Information Technology Audit, Environmental Audit etc. These are in line with international best practice. With adequate funding, the audit exercises being envisaged would not only bring the Office of the Auditor-General to a mature level, but would boast public confidence in the mandate of the Office.
He noted that the Office plays crucial role in ensuring that the public finances of MDAs are audited regularly and Annual Reports sent to National Assembly in consonance with Section 85, Sub-section 5 of the 1999 Constitution.
The Auditor-General said that Management had ensured timely submission of Annual Audit Report to the National Assembly. “The 2012 Annual Audit Report has already been submitted while work is in progress for 2013”.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Lawan Ibrahim Ahmad commended the President for granting the waiver which enabled the Auditor-General to purchase the office complex. Senator Lawan Ahmad said that the Senate is working on a bill that would make funding of the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation and the states first line charges.
Advocating befitting offices for the Auditors-General, Senator Ahmad said corruption fighting agencies like Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) would have less to do in terms of fighting corruption as Auditors-General working under conducive environment, would have done all that was necessary in terms of auditing.
His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan commissioning the Audit House and accompanied by the Auditor-General Mr Samuel Ukura & Honorable Minister of FCT Senator Bala Mohammed.