The Accountant General of the Federation, Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein says transparency and accountability should be entrenched at all tiers and aspects of governance in the country.
Madein spoke at the 2024 National Council on Finance and Economic Development (NACOFED) held in Bauchi State.
According to her, transparency and accountability should not be solely about finances or financial managers; other resources, including human resources, have to be accounted for.
A statement from the Office of the Accountant General, signed by the Director, Press, Bawa Mokwa, quoted the Accountant General as saying: “Transparency doesn’t end with finances, it goes round to even the store keeper and those that manage the kitchen. Infrastructure has to be accounted for, everything that can be used indiscriminately, must be properly accounted for in a transparent manner”, she said.
Dr Madein said, “If we only build structures around how finances can be controlled, and leave the other areas without much control mechanism, then we are just doing haphazard job. We need to build serious control measures around our assets.”
She noted that it has become imperative for persons in positions of authority to adequately account for assets that are procured through public funds.
“When funds are released for the purpose of increasing assets of the government, those assets must be accounted for by those that are handling them”, she said.
The AGF emphasised the need for continuous capacity building and motivation of the workforce, noting that this was of utmost importance in ensuring transparency and accountability in managing public assets.
On fiscal discipline, Dr Madein advised governments at all levels to adopt appropriate control measures and imbibe the culture of savings and viable investments to guarantee availability of financial and other resources during the rainy day.
“Savings is good and savings at the time of plenty is advisable. Governments at all levels should save from whatever comes to them so that they can have what to fall back to in any adverse situation”, she said.
