Twenty-one Nigerian states could not account for missing N208 billion in the 2022 fiscal year, the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI)’s Subnational Audit Efficiency Report for 2023 has shown.

The PLSI’s SAE report, published in April, also listed Lagos as the worst-performing Nigerian state with regard to audit efficiency.

After numerous queries, Cross River alone could not account for N135.9 billion in public funds. The Katsina State government failed to report where N59.5 billion went. Jigawa, Edo and Akwa Ibom had N7.1 billion, N7 billion and N6.2 billion in unaccounted funds, respectively.

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Other states with unaccounted funds were Kano, Bayelsa, Niger, Kebbi, Zamfara, Adamawa, Ekiti, Plateau, Kwara, Yobe, Gombe, Kaduna, Ondo, Ogun, Bauchi and Benue. Over 90 audit queries were made between Anambra and Osun, but data on the results was unavailable.

This SAE report hinged its scoring criteria on these eight priority areas:

1. Audit, legal framework and personalisation.
2. Submission of annual activity report.
3. Type of audit document published.
4. implementation of house resolutions on audit recommendations.
5. Evidence of performance audit.
6. Availability of citizens’ accountability report.
7. CS/media participation in the audit process.
8. Effectiveness of public accounts committee.

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Lagos, the worst-performing state in Nigeria, dropped from a 31 percent performance rate in 2022 to a five percent performance rate. The state dropped from 18th to 36th among all 36 states between 2022 and 2023.

According to the PLSI’s 2023 SAE, the appointment procedure of the Lagos State’s auditor general was not transparent and the tenure of the office was not secured; the legal mandate to publish Lagos audits online was not available; the state’s annual activity report was not published; there was no evidence of performance audits in 2022; and citizens’ accountability for 2022 was not available. Also, civil society and media actors were not involved in Lagos State’s audit process.

FIJ also saw that necessary budget audits and fiscal releases between 2019 and 2023 were nowhere to be found.