Acting Accountant General, Anamekwe removed weeks after raising alarm Nigeria is broke, borrowing to pay salaries

Chukwuyere Anamekwe, acting accountant-general of the federation who disclosed weeks ago that the government is broke as is borrowing to pay salaries, has been removed.

Sylva Okolieaboh, a director at the Treasury Single Account (TSA) department, has replaced him, sources said.

A few weeks ago, reports emerged that Anamekwe was “under the radar of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over corruption allegations”.

In May, Anamekwe was appointed amid a probe into allegations of N80 billion fraud linked to Ahmed Idris, former accountant-general of the federation.

Last month, Anamekwe claimed that Nigeria is borrowing money to pay salaries.

“We have to borrow to augment payment of salaries and wages. This shows we are in very difficult times. Government income is highly challenged,” Nwabuoku had said.

The government was said to be unsettled by his comments.

SYLVA OKOLIEABOH

Okolieaboh is a chartered accountant and fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

His interests include public financial management (PFM), financial reporting, cash management/Treasury Single Account, revenue/collections management, expenditure and management internal control.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Okolieaboh said he attended numerous training and made several presentations on different components of PFM. They include Government Finance Statistics by International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC and Public Financial Management Reform in a Changing World by the Harvard Kennedy School, Boston MA, USA.