Auditor-General hinges good governance on public accountability, integrity

The Auditor General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine, has said good governance was necessary for any country, even as one could not divorce suchgovernance from public accountability and integrity.

He made the statement yesterday in Lagos during the ABC of Audit Queries and defence before the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives in collaboration with the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

Ayine noted that the purpose of the programme was to improve on public accountability process at the end of the programme.His words: “There are always challenges but the difference is the willingness and commitment to change because change itself is the only permanent thing in life. Therefore, there must be commitment on the part of not only the participants but every Nigerian has to change.

“Challenges will always be there. Once the commitment to change our attitude and the way we approach problems are considered, there would be difference.” He expressed satisfaction that stakeholders including auditors and the Public Accounts Committee attended the session since it bothered on public accountability.

Participants include Chief Operating Officers and Accounts Officers of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). While admonishing the participants to take every aspect of the workshop seriously, he commended the Chairman, Public Accounts Committee, Kingsley Chinda, for doing a great job and promised that they would continue to address the critical areas in their responsibilities towards improving public accountability so that the public would benefit from this.

Chinda, who represents Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency in the House of said the Committee, office of the Auditor General of the Federation and MDAs were partners in progress.He noted that the MDAs should not always carry the toga of defence, as if they were being persecuted each time they were invited by the PAC to respond to queries regarding finances, adding that such invitations were to set the records straight at all times.

Technical Adviser to the Committee on Public Accounts, Greg Ezeilo added that the subject matter of the programme was more of an interface between the Auditor General and the MDAs, saying they had conducted their activities with various agencies every year.