The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, has urged Accountants in the nation to embrace the ongoing fight against corruption of the current administration by ensuring that they uphold the tenets of transparency and accountability in their management of public funds.
In a keynote address delivered at the opening ceremony of the retreat organised by the Forum of Accountants-General of the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT, the AGF identified monumental corruption as one of the factors responsible for citizens loss of faith in Governments.
Idris said: “As Accountants-General of your respective States, you occupy strategic positions in helping to establish and engender transparency, accountability, good governance and stability in our great nation.
“Therefore you must act in public interest at all times, consistent with the requirements of legislation and government policies.
“Accounting Professionals help in no small measure in combating the opportunity and the cost of fraud and corruption, thus engendering accountability and transparency which are sine-qua-non to good governance and essential elements of economic growth.”
Idris therefore explained that strong financial management, transparency, accountability and enhanced governance are essentials for sustainable, long term economic growth that benefit the citizenry and therefore described the retreat, with theme bothering on transparency, accountability and governance in Nigeria, as “a patriotic act and a sign of their commitment towards national building”.
In his own remarks, the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, represented by the Commissioner for Finance, Akinyemi Asade, identified the critical role of the Accountants-General towards engendering good governance in any nation, saying their activities are key to determining compliance to the concepts of inclusiveness, accountability and transparency.
Ambode further advocated the use of technology in scaling up government processes.
He said it is key to ensuring open governance, promoting transparency, curbing corruption, empowering citizens and improving public service efficiency.
He said Lagos State has made progress towards improving accountability and transparency and has pioneered the International Public Sector Accounting Standards in public Accounting in Nigeria to bring the state’s accounting and reporting systems in line with global best practices.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Accountants-General forum, Akintayo Alaba Kolawole, explained that the retreat is meant to provide the forum opportunity to discuss ways of improving the internal reporting and workflow processes of States Governments in order to improve transparency and accountability in public finance management in Nigeria.
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