Budget Reforms: Stakeholders List Public Hearing, Expenditure Tracking, Others as Solutions

Source: pointblanknews.com

Subjecting the budget process in the National Assembly to public hearings

to provide for an inclusive multi-stakeholder involvement has been

identified as one of the key solutions to reforming the country's public

finance and ensure equitable nationwide development.

In a similar manner, upscaling transparency and accountability through

workable budget tracking measures which involve citizens at all levels has

also been listed as a major step in making the annual budget work in the

public interest.
These recommendations were part of a 12-point communique raised from the

OrderPaper.ng Colloquium on Budgetary Reforms held on September 26, 2016

in Abuja and attended by gladiators from the National Assembly, the

Executive, Civil Society, Media, Development Partners, and other critical

stakeholders.
The communique which was endorsed by Oke Epia, Publisher of OrderPaper.ng;

Anthony Ubani, Moderator of the Technical Panel; and Chido Onumah, head of

the team of rapporteurs for the colloquium, harped on timeliness of budget

presentation and stressed that “the Executive and Legislature should adopt

a more participatory budgeting process by widely consulting with the

citizens and other stakeholders through public hearings.”

Other resolutions reached at the meeting include:  “That a formal forum

for pre-budget consultations and liaison between the Legislature and the

Executive should be created in order to reduce the instances of

disagreements and bickering between the two arms upon presentation of the

Appropriation bill, passage and subsequent implementation;

“That the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) should be adopted as a

benchmark for determining what projects to be included in the budget which

should be equitably spread across the country;
“That provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act should be strictly

adhered to in the preparation and implementation of the budget whilst a

holistic look at the Act should be considered to take care of observed

deficiencies;
“That there should be effective tracking of projects and evaluation of

budget expenditures to ensure transparency and accountability whilst the

role of anti-corruption agencies in the budgetary process clearly defined

and enhanced;” and
“Multi-stakeholder consultations including the private sector, development

partners and the media should be undertaken for the budgetary process;”

and that “the media and civil society should improve their watchdog roles

in monitoring the budgetary process.”
The stakeholders at the colloquium which was chaired by Sokoto State

Governor, Aminu Tambuwal and had presentations from Speaker, House of

Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and representative of the Minister of

Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, also resolved on the

following recommendations: “reform of the procedures of budgeting in the

National Assembly to ensure better accountability, transparency and

openness;
“Making a budget law to cover the processes and procedures of the

budgetary exercise with strengthening legislative oversight being a key

focus;
“That the National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO) should be

established without further delay; and “continual engagement of relevant

stakeholders and to report on gains made with respect to the

implementation of resolutions.”
The colloquium which also had Deputy President of the Senate, Ike

Ekweremadu; Eze Onyekpere, fiscal governance expert and Lead Director at

Centre for Social Justice (CENSOJ); and Sen. Ita Enang, Senior Special

Assistant on National Assembly Matters (Senate) to the President in

participation also commended OrderPaper.ng for “convening the conversation

at such auspicious time in the country's history and urged all

stakeholders to continue to support the initiative.”

Members of the technical panel at the colloquium which had “Budget as a

tool for Accelerated Economic Development in Nigeria” as theme were Sen.

John Enoh, Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance; Sen. Shehu Sani,

Chairman, Senate Committee on Domestic & Foreign Debts. And Hon. Kingsley

Chinda, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts.

Others were Hon. Lawal Garba, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee

on Constituency Outreach; Sen. Chris Anyanwu, member of the 6th and 7th

Senate; Dapo Olorunyomi, Publisher, Premium Times; Victor Muruako, Acting

Chairman Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC); and Imoni Amarere,

Managing Director, News Services, Daar Communications.

The communique which had earlier been read out and adopted by a unanimous

voice vote by all participants at the colloquium was the highpoint of the

event billed to be an annual exercise, according to its organizers.

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