Sanction MDAs that flout financial regulations, CSOs tell Buhari

A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently sanction Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that been indicted of violating financial regulations.
Briefing journalists on the “imperative of the return to good governance issues; the Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa noted that despite the Auditor General of the Federation’s audit report indicting the dozens of MDAs, the president Buhari has not shown any seriousness to act on it.
Musa said: “The Presidency has also done nothing to sanction erring MDAs indicted in the report in spite of its discourse of zero-tolerance and the disregard of due process.” Earlier this year, the Auditor General of the Federation in his 2016 audit report made damning revelations which depicted gross violations of the constitution and Financial Responsibility Act by MDAs.
“For example, the report indicates a progressive surge in the number MDAs that failed to submit their report from 146 in 2014 to 323 in 2016.
The report also shows that many MDAs are noncompliant to the financial regulations considering that these infractions provide avenues for corruption and financial leakages,” he said.
The coalition also urged the President to assent to the Petroleum Industry governance Bill (PIGB) as it would enable wild spread reforms in the oil and gas sector saying that time was running out for him to assent to the bill.
This is even as the National Assembly is yet to also conclude work on the three outstanding components of the PIB as both sides continue to disagree on matters of political nomadism.
The CISLAC Executive Director wondered why the President has yet to assent to the PIGB questioning whether it was not a ploy by the National Assembly and the Presidency to continue using the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as their ATM.
Musa further described as hypocritical the present administration’s delay in inaugurating the National Council on Public Procurement to bring an end to the illegality in the award of contracts.
Meanwhile, the Civil Society groups have viewed as scandalous the delay in the approval of the budget of the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC had initially proposed N242 billion to conduct the 2019 general election but it was later reduced to N189 billion by President Muhammadu Buhari.