Lingering controversy of seniority amongst top officials on Director Cadre at the Auditor General’s office is slowing down the appointment of a new Auditor General for the Federation (AuGF).
The immediate past Auditor-General for the Federation, Mr. Adolphus Aghughu retired on the 7th of September, 2022, but since then finding his successor has proved difficult as there is no agreement on who is the most senior director to take over the position.
As a way of solving the issue, the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts (PAC), on Thursday resolved to interface with the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of the Federation, (AGF), Abubakar Malami for legal interpretation of the matter.
The Committee Chaired by Hon Busayo Oluwole Oke (PDP-Osun) took the decision after the representative of the Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs Folasade Esan, Mr Okonkwo Udoh had made a submission before it on the matter
The Committee had at their last sitting summoned the Head of Service to appear before it to clarify the issue of seniority amongst the Directors and the appointment dates and the issuance of two different contradicting official memo from the Federal Civil Service Commission within 24 hours which had further halted the selection processes
Speaking on the development, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon Oke said that the selection processes would have to be put on hold for now to allow for due consultations on the contending issues including interface with the Attorney General of the Federation on Legal interpretation on matter
According to him, “Why are they in a hurry now? There’s no provision for the office of the Auditor General of the Federation to be run by a Director, it is illegal, the Director occupying that office can not perform the constitutional roles of the Auditor General of the Federation
“We are having backlog of audited accounts of the Federation for the 2020,2021, 2022 which are yet to be laid before the National Assembly because of the absence of a substantive Auditor General of the Federation who is to sign them
“We as a Committee will go through the submissions before us, consult with the Attorney General of the Federation before we arrive at our final decision on the matter that will be acceptable to all the parties involved.”
The aggrieved Directors had made submissions and urged the Committee to look critically into the issue based on existing laid down civil service rules and regulations and urged the Committee to be guided by the provisions of the civil service rules 01, 02 and 03 respectively allegeding manipulation of the selection processes from unnamed quarters.