The House of Representatives Thursday passed the Nigeria Audit Service Bill.
With the passage of this Bill by the Green Chamber, it is expected to be transmitted to the Senate for concurrence.
The passage of the bill has repealed the Audit Ordinance of 1956, establishing along with its Federal Audit Board as well as provided additional powers and functions to the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The bill 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 was presented for consideration, various contributions and amendments were injected into the law during the committee of the House presided over by Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu.
The Majority Leader, Hon Julius Ihonbvere 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.
He explained that 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.
Contributing, Hon. Bamidele Salam, said the bill underwent all the legislative processes but only suffered but was not signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
He added that the Bill was caught up with a want of time, adding that all the stakeholders have harmonised their positions on it.
Salam clarified that theService 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 at least 15 years cognate in accounting and auditing either in the public or private practice.
While Section 4(2) of the law, the Auditor-General for the Federation shall be the Chief Executive Officer; six members representing each of the geo-political zones; representative from the Head of Service of the Federation, Federal Civil Service Commission not below the rank of a Director; two persons who retired from the Service; one person to represent the Institute of the Chartered Accountants of Nigeria as well as one person to represent the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria while the Legal Adviser of the Service shall be the Secretary.
Section 6(a) which proposed that the members of the board serve for a term of four years and may be re-appointed for another term of four years and no more was upheld.
In section 22, the years of the occupant of such office was stated to remain in consonance with what obtains in the Civil Service Rule in which the retirement age is put at 60 years and 35 years of service depending on which comes earlier.