Uche Usim, Abuja
The Office Auditor-General for the Federation (AuGF) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) have agreed to collaborate on better service delivery.
The synergy was cemented at the weekend when the AuGF, Anthony Mkpe Ayine visited the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the NIMC, Aliyu Aziz Abubakar.
Ayine, during the visit, stated that it remains the sole responsibility of the OAuGF to carry out audits of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as well as on all government Parastatals, Commissions, etc, as the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of Nigeria.
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While acknowledging that some other institutions were assigned to carry out inspections and oversight functions, the Auditor-General for the Federation maintained that his office had the exclusive duty of auditing all statutory corporations, commissions, authorities, agencies, including all persons and bodies established by an Act of the National Assembly, on behalf of the Federal Government, according to section 85 of the 1999 constitution.
Ayine further assured his host that the OAuGF would be willing to support and collaborate with the Commission, to help it deliver on its mandate, as he is convinced that NIMC remains a strategic institution in the country.
“We are keen about value addition, as we believe that our work should impact positively on the auditee organisation, thereby helping it to function optimally.
“So, if there are issues on audit that are not clear, or areas where you feel the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation can provide any form of assistance, our doors are wide open,” he said.
The Auditor-General for the Federation said the purpose of his visit was to enable him familiarise himself with key institutions and agencies, adding that “it is important for us that we know who our clients are, for effective auditing”.
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Speaking earlier, the NIMC boss, informed the Auditor-General for the Federation that the Commission has received up to seven letters from various organizations requesting it to submit its books for auditing with the aim of creating fear, and as such needed clarification on the role of the OAuGF.
Abubakar also took time to explain to his guests what he was doing to drive the vision of NIMC in ensuring that it creates an identity management system where every single Nigerian is accounted for. He announced that in 2017 alone, the Commission was able to register 14 million people, double the seven million it recorded in 2016 and now has a total of about 36 million Nigerians on its database.
At the end of the meeting, the Director General led his guests on an inspection tour to the Commission’s Data Centre to further explain the process of collecting, processing, analysing, saving and retrieving data, as well as some of the measures put in place to ensure the safety of information gathered.