The Senate has assured that it would revisit bills passed by the Eighth Assembly, which did not receive presidential assent.
Specifically, it noted that it would leverage on the cordial relationship between the Ninth Assembly and the Presidency to get those bills passed and signed into law.
Chief of Staff to the Deputy President of the Senate, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, gave the assurance on Wednesday in Abuja when he played host to a civil society organisation, Centre for Social Justice, CSJ, led by its Lead Director, Eze Onyekpere.
Igbuzor listed one of such bills to include the Federal Audit Service Commission Bill.
According to him, enactment of the Audit Reform Bill will strengthen fiscal laws and the anti-corruption crusade of the present administration.
He said: “The Ninth Assembly is committed to looking at those laws that were passed in the Eighth Assembly that were not assented to. Since the Audit Reform Bill is in the House of Representatives, definitely it will come to the Senate for concurrence.
“The good working relationship between the Ninth Assembly and the Presidency may be a way to ensure that this one gets passed and signed into law this time around. And I hope that your advocacy will also engage the Attorney General of the Federation. You can be assured of our support.
“The Ninth Senate is concerned about issues of transparency and accountability. In the past, there has been a lot of emphasis on expenditure without emphasis on revenue. Recently, the Senate held a meeting with the revenue generating agencies. So, we are on the same page in terms of what needs to be done to improve transparency and accountability in the country.”
Earlier, the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, said the visit was part of its advocacy engagement with key stakeholders in the Executive and Legislature on the need for audit reforms.
“We are here to introduce the programme we are running on improving the effectiveness of Federal Audit Process and Reforms.
“This bill is such an important bill considering that the Auditor General of the Federation is one of the few constitutional agencies working on anti-corruption,” he said.
According to him, the bill would enhance the fight against corruption once passed and signed into law.
Besides advocating for the enactment of the bill, Onyekpere said the project aimed to support the Public Accounts Committees of both chambers of the National Assembly, office of the Auditor General for the Federation and ministries, departments and agencies in the improvement of audit process.
