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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has said that underfunding the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF) could weaken accountability and increase corruption.
PAC chairman Bamidele Salam, who stated this on Wednesday at a budget defence session with the OAuGF, urged the Federal Government to prioritise adequate appropriation for the office.
Salam stated that this would enhance the capacity of the office to discharge its constitutional mandate effectively and prevent corruption, waste and mismanagement of public resources.
He expressed concern that while the 2026 budget is ₦58.4 trillion, the OAuGF, which is saddled with the responsibility of auditing government expenditure, has a budget proposal of ₦6 billion.
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According to him, “The Office of the Auditor General for the Federation is the office that is ordinarily meant to ensure that those monies are well spent and well audited. And all they have to audit the sum is less than ₦6 billion. For those who can do math, that’s what percentage of the total budget.
“Okay, ₦58.4 trillion, the total budget. It raises some concerns, as far as I’m concerned, if we are really serious about preventing corruption and ensuring that we have value for money and ensuring that this office is actually well empowered or enabled to be able to carry out its statutory duties.
“This is about the only office in the finance chain that is mentioned specifically in the Constitution, Section 85. Yet, like the Auditor General said, they asked for ₦16 billion on overhead and they are getting only ₦5.6 billion.”
The Auditor General, Mr Shaakaa Kanyitor Chira, while giving an overview of the performance of his office in 2025, stated that poor release of appropriated funds affected its operations in 2025.
According to him, “We proposed a budget of ₦3.4 billion for audit of foreign missions, and the Budget Office gave us a ceiling of ₦633,849,824 for 2026.”
