The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein, has said that transparency and accountability should be entrenched at all tiers and aspects of governance in the country.
The AGF who was speaking at the 2024 National Council on Finance and Economic Development (NACOFED) held in Bauchi State, also advised governments at all levels to adopt appropriate control measures and imbibe the culture of savings and viable investments to guarantee availability of financial and other resources during the rainny day.
She said savings is good and savings at the time of plenty is advisable. According to her, “Governments at all levels should save from whatever comes to them so that they can have what to fall back to in any adverse situation.”
She said transparency and accountability should not be solely about finances or financial mangers, adding that other resources, including human resources, have to be accounted for.
“Transparency doesn’t end with finances, it goes round to even the store keeper and those that manage the kitchen. Infrastructure has to be accounted for, everything that can be used indiscriminately, must be properly accounted for in a transparent manner,” she said.
Dr Madein said, “If we only build structures around how finances can be controlled, and leave the other areas without much control mechanism, then we are just doing haphazard job. We need to build serious control measures around our assets.”
She noted that it has become imperative for persons in positions of authority to adequately account for assets that are procured through public funds.
“When funds are released for the purpose of increasing assets of the government, those assets must be accounted for by those that are handling them”, she said.
The AGF also emphasised the need for continuous capacity building and motivation of the work force, noting that this was of utmost importance in ensuring transparency and accountability in managing public assets.