Corruption is known as one of the factors bedeviling Nigeria’s growth and development since democracy, with non-accountability and lack of transparency by government officials, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) playing a great role in corruption.
In other to promote transparency and accountability in the management of public funds, encouragement of citizen’s active participation in the fight against corruption, as well as promote improved access of Nigerians to public goods and services as matters of human rights, The Socio-Economic Rights & Accountability Project (SERAP), on Wednesday organized an interactive session, to discuss the recent audited reports by the Auditor General of the Federation, and to propose recommendations on how to address the issues raised and documented in those reports.
Speaking on the efforts of the House of Representatives to promote transparency and accountability among Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA), the Chairman, Public Account Committee of the House of Representatives, Hon. Oluwole Oke, revealed that on the 9th December 2019, the public Account committee of the house launched a new financial transparency policy web portal.
Oke, noted that the launch of the open treasury portal is to provide members of the public a better insight into government expenditure, policy set minimum financial reporting requirement, and deadlines for the over 800 government MDA’S in Nigeria.
Presenting SERAP’s report on promoting transparency and accountability in ministries, Department and Agencies in Nigeria, The Director Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative, Mr. Segun Elomo noted that failure in remittance of revenue, to the federations account grew from 20 Billion naira in 2017, to 54 Billion Naira in 2018, which shows a growth of 164%
Elomo also noted that non remittance of internal generated revenue between 2017 and 2018 was 48 billion, while non-deduction, under-deduction, non-remittance of statutory tax by MDA’s was around 5.4 billion.
Giving his recommendation, the Director recommended that the house of representative should work on enacting audit law for MDA’s, and the Auditor General and accountant general of the Federation should seat-up on auditing and making audit reports available.
