The Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI) has ranked Ekiti and Yobe states 1st position with a score of 73 percent each in transparency in the management of public funds and implementation of public policies<<<READ FULL ARTICLE>>>
Also, Akwa Ibom emerged 3rd position with a score of 60 percent, Katsina took 4th with 53 percent while Lagos state took 36th position with a score of 5 percent.
This was revealed at the public presentation of the Sub-national Audit Efficacy Index 2023 with theme: “Expanding accountability frontier for equitable and inclusive Sub-national development in Nigeria” organised PLSI with support by MacArthur Foundation in Abuja on Thursday.
Other findings from the SAE index 2023, observed that only 4 out of 36 state have made progress towards implementing financial autonomy for the Office of the Auditor General.
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According to the index , only 12 out of 36 states have implemented legal provisions to activate administrative independence for the Office of the Auditor General.
Also, 2 states did not publish either audit report or audited financial statement for 2022 online and only 2 out 36 states published annual activity reports for 2022 online .
The Executive Director PLSI, Olusegun Elemo explained that the methodology for the index is clear and they have been sustaining the methodology for few years now.
He said this is the 4th annual assessment and they are assessing 8 parameters which are the audit laws, the implementation of the audit laws, some of the activity of the of the suppreme audit institutions like the annual activity report , the audit documents that is published online as well as the activities of the Office of the Acountant General in coordinating efforts around citizens accountability reports.
He said there are also players in the space like the CSOs, media and they also assess their efforts to participate in the audit process .
“We found out the slow implementation of the audit laws . States are not really as enthusiastic as we thought they should be in advancing financial autonomy for the Office of Auditor General at the state level as well as in pushing forward efforts to establish administrative independence.
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“We proposed that the executive at the state level should exhibit more political will because that will determine how fast we move in implementing the audit laws,” he said.
Also, the Director of Audit, Planning ,Research and Documentation dept Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, Dr Fawale Busayo Ayinla expressed his heart felt congratulation to PLSI on the launch of the report which represents a significant milestone in their collective pursuit of transparency, accountability and sustainable development.
He said the Sub-national Audit Efficacy Index 2023 stand as a testament to efforts and unveiling commitment of PLSI in advancing good governance and accountability in Nigeria by evaluating the efficacy of governance mechanisms at the Sub-national level.
He also said the report also provides insights to guide policy makers, stakeholders and citizens towards informed decision making and enhanced governance practices<<<READ FULL ARTICLE>>>
