By Kayode Oyero

The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi says he will subject all arms of government to routine audit if he wins the 2023 presidential election next February.

“As President, one of my priorities will rule of law and due diligence, and promoting intangible assets, which are vital components of holistic security. This will also underpin public sector accountability.

“We will abide by the Fiscal responsibility laws. All arms of government will be subject to routine audit this is the only way to ascertain the veracity of procurement figures, recurrent and concurrent expenses, even constituency projects,” he said on Wednesday at the 52nd annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

The former governor of Anambra State spoke on will speak briefly on ‘Accounting As A Requisite For Sustainable Governance.’

According to him, incompetence in financial records totally distorts intended development.

“If we cannot properly account for our finances, the country is finished,” he said even as he charged accountants to do more to check and stop corruption in Nigeria.

Obi said he has a three-tracked plan aimed at achieving Goal 12 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Second, pursuant to Goal 9 of the SDGs our administration will from its inception continue to encourage investment in infrastructure, energy, transportation, irrigation and telecoms to grow these and other sectors.

“We will expand the frontiers of financial inclusion to ensure that SMEs have greater access to credit to grow. We will work with financial institutions to improve their ability to identify credit worthy borrowers; and support inventory financing, which will help to unlock finance for SMEs dealing with high account receivables.

“All loans must be invested in regenerative projects. We shall pursue a drastic reduction in cost of governance and corruption; improve ease of doing business to attract Foreign Direct Investment to jumpstart industrialisation and when borrowing is unavoidable, it will be strictly for production,” the Labour Party presidential candidate explained.