‘Sluggish implementation of audit laws hindering transparency, accountability in North-east’

The Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI) says the slow and poor implementation of audit laws is hindering transparency and accountability in North-east states. Mr Olusegun Elemo, the Executive Director of PLSI, stated this at the Northeast Regional Workshop on Audit Office-Civil Society Organization (CSO) collaboration in support of Audit Independence, held in Damaturu, the Yobe […]

The Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI) says the slow and poor implementation of audit laws is hindering transparency and accountability in North-east states.

Mr Olusegun Elemo, the Executive Director of PLSI, stated this at the Northeast Regional Workshop on Audit Office-Civil Society Organization (CSO) collaboration in support of Audit Independence, held in Damaturu, the Yobe state capital.

Elemo lamented that without the implementation of the laws, the independence of audit offices cannot be asserted, adding that citizens’ participation in the audit process was quite poor in the region.

‘‘The audit laws are not well implemented. There is sluggish implementation of the laws, and without implementation of the laws, the independence of audit offices cannot be asserted.

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‘‘There is also a shrinking civic space where the civil societies are not able to participate actively as they should in the affairs of government and I think that negates the provision of the constitution and we need to look at that,” he said.

He said the two-day workshop which convened state auditors-general, civil society actors and auditor general for local governments from the Northeast is meant to enhance the independence of audit institutions, audit impact on the lives of people, and come up with a collaboration framework that will guide the relationship between audit offices and civil society organizations.

In his remark, the Auditor General of Yobe state, Alhaji Mai Aliyu Umar Gulani, said the workshop was aimed at improving the level of transparency and accountability operational in the utilization of public resources and implementation of public policies across the states through public audit action cycle.

According to him, the 2024 report by the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI) has placed Yobe as the top state in its Subnational Audit Efficacy Index.

‘‘We achieved this through their assessment process of getting value for public funds, annual activity report and audit legal framework and operationalization as well as publication of annual audit report,” he said