The Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF) has failed to publish the much-awaited first interim audit report on the utilisation of the COVID-19 intervention funds as earlier indicated.

The erstwhile Auditor General for the Federation (AuGF), Mr. Anthony Ayine, who retired from service on October 25, had earlier promised to make its findings public before the end October.

He had handed over to the most senior director in the office, Mr. Adolphus Aghughu, who has since been administering the office until a substantive AuGF is appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Sources at the OAuGF, however, told Flavision yesterday that the delay in appointing a replacement for Ayine was partly responsible for the non-release of the the report, about two months after the scheduled date.

But there are yet no certainty if the COVID-19 audit report is ready, as sources couldn’t provide reliable update on the study.

There are speculations that the COVID-19 funds, running into billions of Naira, released by the federal government in collaboration with the private sector partners to mitigate the impact on vulnerable Nigerians, may have been mismanaged.

Ayine had said:

We have commenced the audit. In fact, we are about issuing the first interim report.

Flavision, however, gathered that the Federal Civil Service Commission had already interviewed some nominees for the office of the AuGF while the name of the best candidate is expected to be forwarded to the presidency for submission to the National Assembly.

A new AuGF should emerge by February next year.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.