President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Friday approved the appointment of Mr. Shaakaa Chira as the substantive Auditor-General for the Federation.
The appointment followed the recommendation of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC).
A statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity), Chief Ajuri Ngelale and made available to Financialtrust.com.ng said the President relied on the powers vested in him by Section 86 of the 1999 Constitution (Amended).
The statement reads in part: “President Bola Tinubu has approved Mr. Chira’s appointment after the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) conducted a screening exercise that identified Mr. Chira as the most qualified candidate who had also scored the highest in the examination amongst all qualified candidates for the office.”
It said the President expects the new Auditor-General to justify the confidence reposed in him and to live up to the high expectations that Nigerians have concerning the execution of the Renewed Hope Agenda of his administration.
The position of Auditor-General for the Federation became vacant on September 7, 2022 after the retirement of the then substantive AuGF, Aghughu Adolphus.
The issue of the appointment of a substantive Auditor-General for the Federation has been a subject of controversy leading to many petitions by stakeholders who called on the President to quickly appoint a substantive Auditor-General.
Recently both the House of Representatives and Senate committees on public accounts raised the alarm that their work is being stalled by the inability of the acting auditor-general for the federation to sign audit reports of MDAs because he lacked the constitutional empowerment to do so.
For that, the reports of the AuGF, which form the bulk of the job of the committees, have not been filed for three consecutive years: 2020, 2021 and 2022.