Buhari orders civil servants to answer audit queries ‘within 24 hours’

President Muhammadu Buhari has taken the war against corruption to the civil service.

He has directed the auditor-general of the federation to ensure that all outstanding audit queries are conclusively resolved within 30 days.

Buhari has also ordered that henceforth, all audit queries must be answered within 24 hours.

The orders followed the president’s displeasure on hearing that audit queries remained unanswered for long periods, sometimes running into years, under previous administrations.

Garba Shehu, ‎senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, confirmed the directives, adding that President Buhari was irrevocably committed  to tackling administrative and bureaucratic corruption head-on.

“The era of impunity is gone. The president is taking the war on corruption to the civil service. He is not happy that standard operating procedures and financial regulations  are no longer being observed as they should,” he said.

“President Buhari will ensure that public officials and civil servants in the service of the federal government pay a heavy price from now on for violating financial regulations  or disregarding audit queries.”

Shehu added that the president was determined to put an end to the present situation in which, rather than respond to legitimate audit queries, violators of financial regulations in the federal government resort to threatening, bribing or mounting other forms of social pressure on auditors.

“On his watch, President Buhari wants to see firm action against those who violate extant financial regulations, not the prevarications and shenanigans that went on in the past in the form of endless probes and public inquiries,” the presidential spokesman said‎.