Bauchi State House of Assembly on Thursday, during its plenary, rejected the nomination of Ishaku Yankari as the Auditor-General of the State as requested by the Executive Governor of the State, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir.
This followed the presentation of the report of the House Committee on Public Account in respect of the screening exercise of the Auditor-General nominee which was laid by the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Mubarak Haruna representing the Jama’are constituency.
The Committee explained that after extensive deliberations, it invited the Civil Service Commission, being one of the major Stakeholders in the appointment of the Auditor General, for a meeting/engagement and since Bauchi State Public Sector Audit and other
Related Matters Law, 2021 entails the processes and procedures of appointing Auditor General, the Committee
members were furnished with a copy of same to study the relevant sections.
Since the nominee is originally a Staff of State Audit, the Committee requested the nominal roll so that the Committee will observe whether the seniority has been taken into consideration prior to the nomination or otherwise.
According to the report, stakeholders were contacted to point out their understanding regarding the matter under reference and the Civil Service Commission was requested to provide relevant documents of the three (3) recommended candidates submitted to His Excellency.
The Committee explained that the Hon. House had received a petition dated 24 August, 2023 from one Munkaila Yakubu who claimed to be a current overseer of the office of the State Auditor-General in which the petition posits that in the process of the nomination that is currently before the Hon. House, all relevant provisions were disregarded as such the petition faulted all the processes and procedures of the exercise.
The Committee stated that its findings showed that the Office of the Head of Civil Service, for reason best known to them, which the Committee have contravened the provisions of Section 8 of Public Sector the Audit Law 2021 in submitting the list of three (3) candidates to the Civil Service Commission for interview in which they interviewed only those three (3) persons submitted to them.
Based on this action, the Committee said that the action negated the provision of Section 8 (3) which stipulates that in
recommending a person for appointment as Auditor General the Civil Service Commission shall advertise the vacancy because the Civil Service Commission did not use either the website or any of the National Newspapers
Also, seniority was not taken into cognizance despite the fact that the nominee was selected from the Staff of the Audit. Therefore the joint Committee of Public Account and Petitions agreed that the petition has merit.
Constitutional responsibilities of this Hon. House is lawmaking the peace, order and good governance of this State in accordance with Section 4 Sub-Section 7 (a) the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as such therefore, the beauty of any law enacted by any House of Assembly is the level of compliance it receives fron the general public and Governmental Institutions.
“Mr, Speaker, the Committee
is robustly of the view that any law passed by this Assembly shall remain relevant and any attempt to relegate it must be resisted by the House so that our efforts would ot always be ending in fiasco.” The Committee said.
Against this backdrop, and having made the above observations and findings and also having acquainted all Honourable Members on the situation under reference, the Committee recommended that the process of screening exercise of the nominee be halted since the criteria of selecting him was not duly followed and that the nomination be jettisoned since the processes and procedures followed were not in accordance with the provisions of the State Public Sector Audit Law 2021.
The Committee also recommended that the Executive Arm be reminded that the Public Sector Audit Law was an Executive Bill sent to the Hon. House for legislation, having passed and assented to, the need for the Executive Arm to strictly adhere to it could not be overemphasized and that the Civil Service Commission be enjoined to start afresh the processes for the appointment, taking into consideration
relevant provisions of the law so that their action will not be subject to challenge or litigation.
The Committee further recommended that the Civil Service Commission, being a body of technocrats, be advised to always play the role of advisory body to the Executive especially where certain exercise is guided by a law.
The Honourable House unanimously adopted the report after the Speaker put the prayers into voice vote.
