By Christiana Ekpa
The House of Representatives has passed the Nigeria Audit Service Bill thereby repealing the Audit Ordinance of 1956, establishing along with it Federal Audit Board as well as provided additional powers and functions to the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The bill was tagged, “an act to repeal the Audit Ordinance of 1956, and enact the Federal Audit Service Act, 2023 to establish the Federal Audit Service, provide additional powers and functions of the Audito-General for the Federation, establish the Federal Audit Board; and for related matters.
When the bill came under the scrutiny on Thursday, 12th October, 2023, various contributions and amendments were injected into the law during the committee of the House presided over by Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu.
In its introductory remarks, the Majority Leader of the House, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere said the Bill was part of efforts to erase colonial inheritance, make it in compliance with relevant sections of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.
According to Prof. Ohonvbere, who re-presented the bill which is rolled over from the 9th Assembly, the need to effect the changes has become expedient to give the board the independence, impartiality and create an enabling environment needed for it to effectively discharge its statutory responsibilities.
Nigeria before now, was the only country in Africa out of the 54 countries without audit law.
In an early intervention, Rep. Salam enjoined his colleagues to note that the bill underwent all the legislative processes but only suffered non-assent to it by the President that it was caught up with want of time emphasizing that all the stakeholders have harmonized their positions on it.
The service is to operate as Board and not a Commission.
Section 4 (a) in the new law provides that a chairman of the Board shall have atleast 15 years cognate in accounting and auditing either in the public or private practice.
