Senate faults Buhari’ s anti-graft war, urges proactivity

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts yesterday faulted the style of President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption, which it noted, allows “corruption to happen before sending the EFCC or the ICPC after the culprits.”

It, therefore, recommended that the audit system be digitalised to check corruption and the drudgery associated with tons of papers.

Chairman of the committee, Mathew Urhoghide, said for effect, the crusade should be coordinated by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.

The lawmaker urged enthronement of tighter institutions to effectively monitor activities of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

“If we are able to audit them, and we are able to put them in proper perspective or in checks, the issue of corruption would reduce tremendously in our country,” he submitted.

Urhoghide regretted that “the audit system we are running right now is such that our MDAs, and indeed the account of the federation, are not subjected to any precaution in terms of checking corruption rather our resources are ploughed into agencies that are fighting corruption.”

According to him, “what we need to do is to have the right personnel in the audit office and the resources for the job.

“There were things that we had thought of in the Senate when we passed the Federal Audit Bill for the President to sign.

“Today, the bill has not seen the signature of the president and we expect that this ninth Senate will ensure it is signed in to law.”

The committee’s vice chairman, Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, urged embrace of digitilisation, noting that his home state of Jigawa had parted ways with analogue for a real-time system.

Besides, the House of Representatives is to revisit the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2018.

Its Chairman on Electoral Matters, Hajia Aisha Dukku, who spoke at the inaugural meeting of the panel in Abuja, explained that the law would be reviewed and forwarded back to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent to deepen the nation’s civil rule.

Also yesterday, the president has assented to five pieces of legislation, namely the Obafemi Awolowo University Transitional Provisional Amendment Bill 2019; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi Amendment Bill 2019 and the University of Maiduguri Amendment Bill 2019.

Others are the National Fertiliser Quality Control Bill 2019 and the Nigeria Council of Food Science and Technology Establishment Bill 2019.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters (House of Representatives), Umar El-Yakub, made the disclosure in Abuja.