Foundation presses Tinubu on Federal Audit Service Bill

The AdvoKC Foundation has renewed its call on President Bola Tinubu to assent to the Federal Audit Service Bill, saying continued delays in signing the legislation are leaving Nigeria’s supreme audit institution without control over critical aspects of its finances and administration.

In a statement obtained by The PUNCH on Sunday, the foundation said the Auditor-General for the Federation currently depends on other government institutions for budget allocation, the release of appropriated funds and the management of its personnel, a structure it said undermines the independence required to effectively scrutinise public spending.

The statement was signed by the organisation’s communications manager, Luqman Adamu.

The renewed call came after the United States Department of State’s 2026 Fiscal Transparency Report again assessed Nigeria against international standards for fiscal transparency, while the International Monetary Fund’s 2026 assessment of the Nigerian economy also highlighted the need for stronger public financial management, transparency and accountability.

AdvoKC said the developments had reinforced concerns it raised in July when it wrote to the Presidency and publicly urged Tinubu to sign the Federal Audit Service Bill, which has been passed by both chambers of the National Assembly.

The foundation’s Project Director, Habib Sheidu, said the issue had become more urgent because the weaknesses identified in Nigeria’s audit system were having practical consequences for the government’s ability to monitor public expenditure.

“When we wrote to the Presidency in July, we made the case on the numbers alone,” Sheidu said in a statement.

“Two months on, the numbers have been joined by a second international verdict, by the Auditor-General’s own account of what it cannot do without funding it doesn’t control, and by a former Vice President turning this into a campaign issue.

“None of that required imagination. It only required watching what happens when a Bill both chambers have passed sits on a desk long enough,” the statement added.

The foundation said the latest US assessment was significant because the report, which covered fiscal transparency practices during the 2025 calendar year, evaluated 139 governments and the Palestinian Authority against minimum standards.

According to AdvoKC, 73 of the assessed governments met the required standard, while Nigeria failed to meet it for the second consecutive year.

The foundation linked the assessment to the institutional structure governing Nigeria’s audit office, arguing that the Auditor-General cannot exercise effective oversight when key resources required to conduct audits remain under the control of other government bodies.

Under the existing arrangement, the Budget Office of the Federation determines the audit office’s budget allocation, while the Ministry of Finance controls the release of funds.

The Federal Civil Service Commission, rather than the Auditor-General, is responsible for recruitment, promotion and disciplinary matters involving the office’s personnel.

AdvoKC said the Federal Audit Service Bill is intended to alter that arrangement by giving the audit institution greater control over its finances and personnel.

The foundation said the issue was not merely administrative, arguing that inadequate funding directly affects the scope of audits that the Auditor-General can undertake.

It cited disclosures made by lawmakers in February that only four per cent of the Auditor-General’s approved 2025 capital allocation had been released.

According to the foundation, the funding constraint meant that the Auditor-General’s office could audit only five of Nigeria’s approximately 100 foreign missions during the relevant audit cycle.

For an institution responsible for examining the use of public funds across federal ministries, departments and agencies, the foundation said, the figures demonstrated the consequences of leaving the audit office dependent on other institutions for access to its approved resources.

AdvoKC also pointed to the Mexico Declaration of Independence, an international standard developed under the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions, which calls for supreme audit institutions to have sufficient financial and administrative independence to discharge their responsibilities.

The foundation argued that Nigeria’s present arrangement falls short of that principle because the Auditor-General does not have full control over the three areas it considers fundamental to institutional independence: budget, funding release and personnel.

The call for presidential assent comes as Nigeria continues to face scrutiny over the management and disclosure of public finances.

The IMF, in its 2026 assessment of Nigeria, identified improvements in public financial management, fiscal reporting, transparency and accountability among areas requiring continued reform.

The Fund also noted the status of the Federal Audit Service legislation, stating that the Federal Audit Service Act had been passed by the National Assembly and was awaiting presidential assent.

AdvoKC said the convergence of the domestic funding problem with international assessments made the case for reform more immediate.

“What should concentrate attention in the Villa is that the IMF and the US State Department did not coordinate their findings, examine the same data, or share a common methodology,” the foundation said.

“One reviewed fiscal aggregates; the other assessed institutional transparency practice against a global benchmark,” it added.

The foundation said the significance of the two assessments was therefore not that they reached an identical conclusion, but that both had kept questions of public financial management, transparency and institutional accountability in focus while Nigeria’s audit reform legislation remained unsigned.

AdvoKC said presidential assent would also need to be followed by concrete implementation measures.

It asked Tinubu to direct the constitution of the Federal Audit Board within 90 days of assent and establish a public timetable for appointing the Director-General of the proposed Federal Audit Service.

The foundation also called for a plain-language summary of the legislation to be published after assent, saying citizens should be able to track how the new framework is implemented.

“AdvoKC Foundation reiterates the request it made in July: that President Tinubu assent to the Federal Audit Service Bill without further delay,” the statement said.

It added that the implementation of the legislation should be sufficiently transparent to allow Nigerians to monitor whether the institutional independence envisaged by the law was actually achieved.

The foundation said the issue ultimately went beyond the passage of another piece of legislation, arguing that an audit institution expected to scrutinise government expenditure must itself have adequate resources and administrative independence to perform that responsibility.