The Auditor General Chose Silence… and Left Us with the Ashes!

As I See 

Adel El-Baz

Does the Auditor General believe that his silence and concealment of reports from public scrutiny will spare him accountability and bury the issue in the sands of forgetfulness? Silence is the flawed strategy that government institutions have become addicted to in their dealings with the press. It is also the reason why the Auditor General has ignored our repeated calls to release the 2025 report. Needless to say, the report is not the Auditor General’s personal property; it is a public document that belongs to every Sudanese citizen.

No one should assume that our pursuit of the Auditor General is driven by personal motives. We have no connection with him and know little about him personally. What we do know is that he is entrusted—or is supposed to be entrusted—with safeguarding citizens’ funds, overseeing public performance, and helping reform state institutions through financial accountability and evaluation.

We pursue the Auditor General because we know that the limited details already revealed from the report suggest that the corruption and misconduct it contains are beyond imagination. The report exposes countless irregularities: companies refusing to submit their records for audit, state-owned banks being plundered in broad daylight, millions of dirhams and dollars squandered, and board members of loss-making companies receiving thousands of dollars annually for attending only two meetings a year.

In addition, millions of dollars in export revenues never make their way into the public treasury, and no one knows where they end up. Government entities and companies export gold, yet the proceeds disappear into unknown destinations. Dozens of state-owned enterprises lose millions every year while their executives and board members continue to collect thousands of dollars in compensation. These are not merely figures and statistics; they represent the lifeblood of the people and the future of coming generations.

Your Excellency, when we demand the release of the report, our goal is to place this pervasive corruption within state institutions before the eyes of public opinion. The best way to address the dysfunction of these institutions is either to close them, liquidate them, reassess their performance, stop the hemorrhaging of public funds, and shut the gates of corruption.

Instead of supporting the press in this effort, the Auditor General has become a guardian of corruption and misconduct. In effect, he stands against the reform of these institutions. Does anyone, for example, know the extent of the debt burden facing Nilein Bank or the scale of the funds that have been looted from it? A total of 175 million dirhams has disappeared, with no one able to account for its whereabouts. And Nilein Bank is not alone. Dozens of government institutions suffer from the same bleeding wounds, while ordinary citizens continue to struggle with poverty and soaring living costs.

The rigorous and commendable efforts currently being undertaken by the Central Bank of Sudan cannot yield meaningful results unless the shortcomings of state-owned banking institutions are exposed and their stolen assets recovered. This is precisely what the Central Bank is working toward. Publishing the Auditor General’s report would undoubtedly support these efforts, as the report is a trusted document and a barometer measuring the degree of transparency with which the state manages public funds. Ultimately, it would contribute to reforming the machinery of government.

We are not targeting specific institutions or individuals, Mr. Auditor General. Rather, we are combating institutional corruption for the sake of a healthier economic and political environment. That is our role. For this reason, we continue to renew our call for the release of the Auditor General’s reports.

This is far preferable to allowing the press to stumble in the dark and publish corruption stories without a reliable point of reference, while social media becomes flooded with unfounded allegations and accusations against institutions and individuals who may not deserve public condemnation. The more transparent a state is and the more reliable information it provides, the fewer the rumors, the healthier the working environment, and the less polluted the public sphere becomes with stories of corruption. Transparency is not a luxury; it is an existential necessity for any nation seeking progress and development.

Beyond helping the state and its institutions combat corruption, transparency has a direct impact on improving the business environment, making it easier to attract foreign investment. After all, who would choose to invest in an economic and political environment devoid of transparency and plagued by corruption? No one. Transparency is a fundamental prerequisite for economic attraction, and the health of the legal and economic environment is among the first concerns of prospective investors.

No one knows why the Auditor General is so determined to withhold this report. Is he acting under instructions from powerful interests? Does he believe there is no need to disclose the truth to the public and prefer to leave the people in the dark? Is he shielding influential individuals or institutions whose wrongdoing cannot be exposed? Or is it a combination of all these factors that lies behind the report’s concealment?

Be assured, Mr. Auditor General, that a day will come when the truth emerges before public opinion. When that day arrives, you will receive no credit for it. Instead, you will face accusations that you concealed your report and allowed corruption to gnaw away at the very bones of the state. On that day, condemnation will fall upon you from every direction.

As for us, we will continue pursuing this report until it finally sees the light of day. Prepare yourself for a long battle—our battle against corruption. This is a nation for which thousands have sacrificed their lives. The least we can do is prevent it from being destroyed from within by corruption.