President Muhammadu Buhari says though his administration has made meaningful gains in the fight against corruption, the result is yet to reach the desired level. The President who was represented by the Head of Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita stated this at the Conference of Auditors-General in Nigeria in Abuja.
He explained that the current administration had introduced several different initiatives, especially in the financial and management sector aimed at stemming the tide of corruption.
“At the inception of this administration, three cardinal goals were set: these are security, fight against corruption and revamping of the economy.
“Three and the half years down the life of this administration, I am pleased to report that tremendous achievement has been recorded in all three areas.
“I will say, however, that the desired level in the fight against corruption is yet to be attained. Despite this continued effort on the part of government, gap still remained to be closed, especially in the area of external auditing.”
He listed some of the initiatives to include the treasury single account, which have tremendously reduced leakages in the system, as well as the Presidential initiative on Continuous Audit, PICA.
He said, “PICA have the mandate to validate controls, assess risk, probe a small cost, ensure compliance with public financial management refunds, detect errors and make recommendations to management for necessary actions.
“Recently, I approve several sweeping reforms in the public finance sector so as to further reduce waste and drive up revenue.
“These reforms include performance monitoring that will set financial indicators and targets for revenue generating for government owned enterprises; new measures for expenditure controls, budgeting and financial reporting requirement.”
