The newly appointed Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Sekirat Madein has pledged to instill transparency, zero tolerance for corruption and high level of productivity as she strives to restore the image of the Treasury House which has been enmeshed in all manner of corruption allegations in recent times.
Taking over as Nigeria’s first female Accountant General, Madein, replaced Sylva Okolieaboh who was retiring in an eleven months acting capacity without confirmation by President Buhari.
Madein was coming in after corruption allegations against two former AGFs. Speaking at the handover event in Abuja, she acknowledged the enormous work ahead particularly in cleaning the Treasury house and restoring confidence.
“We are all aware that the Treasury house has suffered some turmoil in the last one year, though the tide has been tamed by the outgoing acting AGF, I hope to continue from there.
“We will always be guided by the principles of zero tolerance to corruption in discharging our statutory responsibilities so as to diligently redeem the image of the Treasury office. We will move back the glorious days of our fore fathers,” she stated.
Madein sought utmost cooperation from the staff, because according to her, eventhough she comes with some 30 years experience in civil service, OAGF is a new field which desires fast learning and guidance.
She implored all staff at all levels to remain focused, dedicated, to duty and as well give useful advice where applicable on how to aggressively improve revenue generation to enable government effectively execute development projects and programs while also blocking leakages is in the revenue sector.
While affirming that learning and development, capacity building are key principles that can drive productivity, she assured that staff welfare and capacity development will be another key focus.
According to her, the new Federal Civil Service strategic implementation plan anchored on six pillars will effectively drive activities of the Treasury House during her tenure.
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She equally promised to strive to fully digitalise services of the Treasury House to create efficiency in the system and tame possible mismanagement of resources.
She equally noted that the operations at the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) will always align with the extant rules and regulation, as well as relevant standard operating procedures.
“We must all join forces together to restore the glory of the Treasury. I implore all of you to join me in driving this vehicle to success,” she implored staff and other stakeholders.
In his speech, Sylva Okolieaboh who was retiring as the Acting AGF said his 20 long years work at the Treasury House out of his 23 years Civil Service career has been that of joy, excitement, fulfillment, eventhough also characterized by uncertainty as to when he would leave office.
Okolieaboh took over the management of OAGF during what he called “its darkest hour” after his predecessor, Ahmed Idris was accused and being investigated over an alleged N109.5 billion fraud while in office.
“In the past 12 months, I had worked without any iota of certainty about when my tenure will be over. As a result, I have seen every single day of the past 365 days as my last day in office. While that mindset makes it easy to cope with the uncertainty; it was very costly for the office.”
“An institution of this magnitude should not be run on day-by-day basis,” he advised.
He said despite the uncertainty, he led a team that ran the OAGF office successfully and recorded some landmark achievements.
“We intervened in the resolution of the protracted ASUU strike; swiftly concluded the 2020 general purpose financial statements; rolled out Bottom-up cash management policy; reined in the abuses of IPPIS; rolled out the TSA for foreign missions; instituted the Treasury Staff Posting policy to make posting more transparent and equitable; etc. The Treasury Management Portal to replace the Remita payment platform is at its testing stage.”
“Above all, and at the risk of sounding immodest, we ran this Office with the highest level of integrity. At no time did vengeance and vendetta form part of our policy,” he reiterated, adding that he will be “available to defend every single decision or action taken by me for the period I headed the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation,” he stressed.
While congratulating his successor on her appointment, he prayed for her success, but pointed out that it is an enormous task.
“It takes all your time and can drain you. It is a high profile, high rewarding and high-risk job. To succeed, you must surround yourself with capable hands; be fair to all; ready to tolerate, listen and to learn; and manage the diversity of the Office.
“You must be the Accountant- General of all because you need everyone to perform,” he further noted, offering his counsel whenever needed.
At the well attended event, three former Accountants-General, including Kayode Naiyeju; Jonah Otunla; and Ibrahim Dankwambo who is also the immediate past governor of Gombe state were all emphatic that Okolieaboh, eventhough he has left office should be confirmed as a substantive AGF as he clocks sixty years.
Dankwambo told the new AGF of the enormous work to be done, especially in restoring the image of the Treasury House while urging staff for unalloyed support.
He also urged the new AGF to ensure that all those units including the Ministry Of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) which was taken out are brought back under the OAGF supervision.
Also in his speech, Naiyeju, among other things emphasized that the first assignment of the new AGF would be to restore the lost glory of the Treasury.
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