No fewer than 40 participants were trained on external audit manual and checklist for state and local government officials, organised by United States Agency for International Development State Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness, State2State Activity.
The three-day training held between June 12-14 2024 at Laylah Suites & Apartments, Gombe.
PERISCOPE NIGERIA reports that S2S supports states to plan and budget, raise revenues, increase civil society participation, and oversee service delivery in Health, Education, and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene sectors by building relevant capacities.
It’s implemented by Development Alternatives Incorporated.
Speaking, Ishiyaku Aliyu, who represented Gombe State Auditor General, Mohammed Buba, lauded State2State for organising the training, which he said would boost their performance.
Buba said, “The training has promoted the spirit brotherhood. As at the first day office of those from Auditor General for Local Government were on different direction while those from the office of State Auditor General were on another side but as time went on there was cooperation, togetherness, people from both offices began to mix.”
On the essence of the training Buba added “things like checklist, contract monitoring, procurement were emphasised. As you know contract is divided into two namely non-construction contract and construction contract. The training provided us with detailed information on how best to audit.”
Speaking further Buba urged participants to cascade lessons learned to their various offices, “They should take it down to those that didn’t attend to ensure that they are not left behind,” he added.
Also, Kefas Umaru, who represented Auditor General for Local Government Gombe State Abubakar Abdullahi, commended the foresight of the organisers, adding that “It really important to build the capacities of auditors.”
Abdullahi added, “We learnt a lot most especially those of us for Local Government audit because there was a lot of terms we have been misusing but due to this training we have made lot of amends to what we knew about the terminologies, I consider it fruitful and positive training.”
While urging participants to utilise the opportunity Abdullahi added, “My call is that we should fully utilise the time spent here; we should all look through the manual by studying it by putting it to use so that the state will get value for the investment.”
On her part, Tabitha Mallums, who represented Ministry of Water, Environment, and Forest Resources said the training has sharpened her horizon on risk management.
“I learnt alot about risk identification technics. I have also learnt how to welcome my auditor whenever they are coming to my ministry, department by have cordial relationship with them by providing them relevant document that they need to work with,” Mallums said.
Mallums also urged her fellow participants to practicalise the training adding that “those that came should use this effectively to improve their services to the state and LGAs.”
S2S Consultant on developing External Audit Manual and Checklist, Dr Peter Adebiyi, told participants that having developed the manual it was imperative to ensure validation.
“We want a situation where operations will be standardised, if Auditor A goes to the field, from the word go of serving the letter of engagement to audit report, you can compare what Auditor A and B did and they will be on the same level we are looking at what you have not been doing before. You have not been administering checklist, questionnaire we are looking forward to a situation where all these will be applied. You just have one page engagement letter what we are giving now as template contains three of four pages which defines the responsibility of auditor, audited and what to answer to,” he added.
Speaking further the Consultant said “Previously, auditors carry bags and go to MDAs but now there is information they would have collected with the checklist which will help them concentrate on a particular area that may be riskier, and the one that may not need much attention. We expect robust report as against skeletal ones you have been giving.”
While delivering his opening remarks, the State2State Gombe State Team Lead, Muhammad Abubakar, represented by the PFM Specialist, Oluwatosin Oke, reminded the participants of State2State’s support to the audit offices to develop and validate the first standard audit manual and checklist which was aimed at helping the two audit offices to perform their audit functions in line with global best practices.
The STL reiterated the importance of the audit manual and checklist, and how the training was designed to expose the Auditors to the new audit checklists and how to effectively deploy them to standardise external audit activities in the state and enhance transparency and accountability in Gombe State’s fiscal affairs. He concluded his remarks by encouraging participants to actively participate in the training and leverage it as an opportunity for peer learning.
Also, State2State PFM Specialist, Oluwatosin Oke, while setting the stage for the training clarified that the training is in two phases; the first two days of the training for only the Auditors from the Offices of State Auditor General for State and the Auditor General for Local Governments, while the last day of the training to feature a joint auditor-auditee training with the account officers from State2State priority sector’s of education, health, and WASH to ensure auditees cooperate with the Auditors to effectively implement the audit manual and checklist to increase accountability and effectiveness of government expenditure across the sectors.
