Ismaila Zakari, former President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), urged President Bola Tinubu to sign the Federal Audit Bill to replace the existing 67-year-old Audit Act.
Zakari made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Abuja, on Friday.
He spoke at the end of a two-day Audit Reporting Training organised for 20 journalists by FrontFoot Media Initiative, with the theme: “X-raying State Government Audit Reports”.
It was organised as part of Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Project under Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism and funded by MacArthur Foundation.
Zakari said review of the audit bill was long overdue, adding that “the existing law on audit at the federal level is the 1956 Audit Act.
“The information I have is that the bill was passed by the 9th National Assembly and it is before the president to assent to.
“Our prayer is that the president would quickly assent to the bill so that the standard of auditing would improve, particularly at the federal level,” he said.
He also said there was a need for the independence of the Auditor-General for the Federation to be respected across board.
Zakari, Managing Partner of Ahmed Zakari and Co. Chartered Accountants, said the independence of the auditor-general was enshrined in the Constitution and should not be thwarted in any guise.
He said auditors were professionals with the powers to act under the constitution without fear of intimidation.
“The auditor-general of the federation is independent and can only be removed by two third of the members of the National Assembly.
“Same applies to auditor-generals at the state level,” he said.
Zakari, however, said that the role of media in advancing good governance, journalists are catalysts of change and the information they put out should empower the citizenry.
“Journalists have important role to play on knowing how public finance is utilised.
“In view of this, media organisations should invest in capacity building and trainings for journalists.
“This is to keep them abreast of what is happening, particularly with regards to public finance."