Journalists were, yesterday, asked to prioritise audit reporting towards promoting accountability in governance. This was the charge by experts at a two-day training workshop on audit reporting in Benin city, Edo State.

A facilitator and former Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, Emeka Izeze, noted that audit report by auditors-general in the 36 states of the federation are critical to ensuring accountability of public officers in the control and management of public funds.

Other speakers at the workshop, including a former Managing Director of New Nigeria Newspaper and The African Guardian, Sully Abu, charged journalists “to be courageous, ethical, and conscientious in unfolding contents of audit reports.”

He advised that state auditors-general should follow the dictates of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to do proper audit reporting.

According to the experts, auditors-general are to report their findings to state Houses of Assembly, just as the media will comply with Section 22 of Chapter 2 to ensure citizens get information they need on their audit reports.

Speaking on the topic, Understanding Budget and Public Sector Finance, Chief Chukwuemeka Anika, a fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants, urged auditors to stay ethical in their audit engagements and to sign only audits that align with their professional, ethical, and moral standards.

On his part, Godswill Omenogor, a chartered accountant and auditor, who spoke on the theme: Interrogating State Government Audit Reports, challenged journalists to interrogate audit reports and ask relevant questions when necessary.