TheCable

The federal government has approved the retirement of Sylva Okolieaboh, acting accountant-general of the federation (AGF), TheCable understands.

Sources familiar with the development said Okolieaboh presented the notice of retirement on April 13, 2023, to the head of service of the federation in line with the established civil service rules.

The letter was confirmed and accepted by the office of the head of civil service of the federation early this month.

Sources also said Okolieaboh has “prepared his handover papers in readiness for departing the public service on May 28 when he will attain the statutory retirement age of 60”.

According to sources, in his notice of retirement, the acting AGF expressed his gratitude to Buhari for the opportunity to serve.

He also thanked the chief of staff to the president, the minister of finance, and the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF).

In July 2022, Okolieaboh, who was a director at the treasury single account (TSA) department, replaced Chukwuyere Anamekwe as the acting accountant-general of the federation.

He had joined the federal civil service in August 2000 as an assistant chief accountant, rising through the ranks until his elevation to acting AGF.

Okolieaboh who hails from Uli, Anambra state, is the first head of the institution from the south-east in the history of the office.

His role as the acting AGF made him a core member of the federal government’s public finance management (PFM) reform team.

He was also the pioneer PFM team leader for the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) and author of the GIFMIS chart of accounts, which has now been adopted as the national chart of accounts.

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

His interests are said to 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. Some of the trainings 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.

Meanwhile, last week, Buhari approved the appointment of Oluwatoyin Sakirat Madein as the substantive AGF.

With the appointment, which took effect on May 18, 2023, Madein essentially became Okolieaboh’s replacement.