‘Management of public expenditure poses danger to national development

Solomon Adeola, chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, at the weekend expressed concern over the high level of impunity perpetuated through the misappropriation of public funds.
Adeola, while giving update on the activities of the committee in Abuja, stressed the need for total overhaul of the management of public expenditure.
He said, “One of the major challenges that confronts us as a government and as a country is the issue of corruption. Looking back as to how it has been with all that I’ve been exposed to, all the government’s documentations, all various documents of the government that relate to public expenditures and other expenses thereon, mine own opinion on the way public funds are being managed is not encouraging at all because day-in, day-out, there are challenges concerning how people receive and disburse government funds with impunity.
“Judging by the last few years, where a lot of reports and documentations are being considered, it’s not only that the current system of how public expenditure is being run poses a lot of danger to the nation’s development, the way and manner people go about running after government’s jobs, government becomes the biggest business in town, goes a long way to proof that there’s something wrong with the system that we run.
“If I want to start mentioning examples of what and what we have found that is faulty, my own judgment of government’s expenditure over the years is not encouraging at all.
“The corruption has eaten into the fabrics of the nation, and to civil service as a whole. There is no hope in sight even up till now concerning the way and manner these funds are being managed. Because the government of the day has only changed from the old way of reporting standard to a new reporting format: that is the modified card basis to accrual basis of accounting. The new basis of accounting is to achieve, among other things, reduction of wastages in the system.”