In Nigeria, Bauchi and Osun States have been ranked highest on openness and accountability in the management and use of public funds, while Lagos and Benue States were ranked lowest.
He lamented that only 11 out of 36 states evaluated conducted either compliance or performance audit on public expenditure in 2021, which means 25 states did not take active measures to ensure adherence to procurement and financial regulations by government agencies, thereby limiting their states ability to achieve value for money, especially on projects implemented in 2020.
Elemo explained that the 2021 SAE index involved assessment along six scoring criteria of audit legal framework, audit mandate, type of audit document produced and published type of audit conducted, citizen participation in audit process and role of public accounts committee.
Stressing the need for a visible improvement in enacting audit legal framework in all 36 states, Elemo said the implementation of the laws has been slow despite the issuance of letter to commence implementation.
The report further lamented that citizens participation in the audit process is very poor across 17 states, while Public Account Committees in 31 state Houses of Assembly are either less effective or not effective, thereby short circuiting the potency of the public audit action cycle as legislators at the state level either lack required capacity to perform their statutory oversight functions on public accounts or are unwilling to do so.
The SAE 2021 index study advised that governors muster political will to improve the execution of new audit laws, particularly the section concerning the Auditor General Office’s financial autonomy.
Elemo also advised governors to form and inaugurate the Audit Service Commission Board, noting that supreme audit institutions at the subnational level require independent technology infrastructure, such as a website, to disseminate audit reports independently without relying on the administration.
He also emphasized that governments should continue to implement citizens’ accountability reports and expand their scope to include more stakeholders.
