AUDIT OFFICES IN ANAMBRA NEED MORE FINANCIAL ALLOCATION— ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE

REPORTER: UCHE NDEKE

The Anambra State House of Assembly Committee on Public Accounts has called for the upgrading of the State and Local Government Audit offices in line with the policy thrust of the present administration.

The Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Somtochukwu Udeze, made the call when the heads of the two audit offices appeared to defend their 2022 revised budget estimate, earlier presented by Governor Chukwuma Soludo.

According to Dr. Udeze, there is the need for the offices to be repositioned in other to be able to discharge their statutory duties effectively.

While agreeing to the need to cut cost, the lawmaker argued that some offices still needed greater funding to enable them engage optimally.

In their separate responses, the state Acting Auditor-General , Mr. Daniel Okeke and his local government counterpart, Mr. C.N Nwokoye, harped on the need for more budgetary allocations to their offices as well as increased manpower to properly discharge the mandate of auditing personnel among other assigned duties.

In a remark, the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Chiamaka Nnake, challenged all the MDAs to be realistically articulate what they intended to achieve in line with the ideals of the present administration, premised on using tax payers money to work for the citizens.

Meanwhile the office of the Accountant General of the state, and the Anambra State signage and advertising agency, also defended their budget estimates before the Committee.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU