By Chuks Collins, Awka
Auditor-General of Anambra State, Mr Okocha Akosa, has raised an alarm that the sum of N750 million was missing and yet to be accounted for by the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the 2024 fiscal year.
Okocha, who made this disclosure at the 2025 Audit Forum and Citizens Accountability Dialogue held at the Cardinals Hotel, Awka, noted that the ugly trend was even an improvement compared to the situation of the 2023 fiscal year.
According to him 2023 unresolved audit queries aggregated to N2.5 billion.
He attributed the improved figures to his efforts since assuming office.
He said: “My office ensures that expectation gaps, lapses and other breaches are identified as it occurs and are rectified.
“These observed breaches are also reduced to the barest minimum. In the financial year 2023 the amount of unresolved queries was about N2.5 billion but has reduced drastically to about N750 million in 2024.
“This is due to the proactive measure put in place by my office.
“Some of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) mentioned in the report, he added, have responded and forwarded documented evidence to clarify the issues in the unresolved queries concerning their entity.
“There have been some improvements in some of the areas we have challenges as I mentioned during last year’s Audit Forum,” Okocha said.
Also speaking, a Principal consulting accountant, Mr Ademola Okeleye called for more efforts to resolve all queries raised in 2024 accounts to enhance public confidence in corporate governance.
He called for increased citizens involvement in decision making, regular payment of taxes, access to information and size every opportunities for feedback and engagement.
The above, the consultant, explained, was to promote transparency, reduce corruption enhance trust in government, as well as encourage active citizenship and community engagement.
Scrutinizing the 2024 Financial Year revenue windows receipts graphically, Mr Okeleye noted that most windows performed very poorly. This included Tax receipt where N29, 441,744,000 was anticipated but only N28, 199,899,033 was realised.
He said this was a mere 4.22% of the anticipated figure.
Again, it was literally scandalous that out of 51 statutory administrative subheads captured in the 2024 appropriation including the State Governor’s office none achieved aggregate performance of about 65%.
He said the pictures were so appalling that even the office of Accountant-General got only N120, 326,747 out of the proposed N710, 000,000.
He further noted that this represents 16.95%. “So with this awful scenario how do anyone expect the relevant workers to do well or put in their best?” he asked.
Professor Tochukwu Okafor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, in her presentation described Accountants and Auditors as the live wire of every organization including government and its ministries, departments and agencies.
She noted that without them things go awfully wrong. She lamented that despite having a subsisting law for the establishment of Director of Audit in government units, since 2020, it has not been implemented. She noted that records show that most government offices have been operating without an internal auditor.
It was discovered, according to her, that the State’s Accountant-General is combining the role with being the Permanent Secretary.
Taking off his presentation, ”Robust Financial System, A Panacea for Good Governance”, Dr Adokwe Ekene from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) declared that Good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development”. He explained that improved auditing was necessary for improved service delivery in Nigeria.
Dr Adokwe decried what he described as the anachronistic mindset of civil servants including top officers in hoarding information when requested. Some of these pieces of information, he noted, were supposed to be readily provided as it could be for the good of all, including the particular officer.
Adokwe further noted that such information when released would help end corruption, promote transparency and accountability.
