The Transparency International, TI, 2016 Corruption Perception Index has it that among the 176 countries and territories featured in the corruption research, very few countries could beat the global average mark of 43. But most countries fell below the average line of corruption index, including Nigeria. The failure by successive governments to implement feasible and sustainable infrastructural development, as captured in yearly budgets, have not only encouraged mass looting of the treasury, but consequently reduced the people to conditions of abject poverty and vulnerability to harsh economic policies.
By Charles Iyare
The absence of transparency, accountability and openness in government created room for the scandalous looting of the nation’s resources by public officials.
In a report provided by the International Budget Partnership, IBP, Nigeria’s budget systems require fundamental reform. From the way things are in many spheres of our nation, there are no requirements for the release of information on actual in-year spending, procurement, public assets and liabilities.
The legal frameworks do not provide for public participation in the budget process and is generally inadequate to support transparency and accountability.
Part of the report claims that budget preparation in Nigeria is a closed process, falling exclusively within the responsibility of non-elected members of the executive.
A Vanguard newspaper report of July 27, 2016 titled NASS Padded 2016 budget with N481bn showed that the legislators padded the 2016 budget to the tune of N481 billion.
Apart from padding the budget with that huge sum, the NASS also unilaterally sexed up votes meant for constituency projects from N60 billion to N100 billion.
According to the report, the projects were the Nigerian railway modernization project, Lagos – Kano standard gauge rail line project, which cost was raised by N32.5 billion and the consultancy dredging and river training works (N609 million) under the Ministry of Transportation.
Others are the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, which had N4.4billion added to its vote, the provision of broadband Internet Service to NASS by Nigcomsat, N318 million, Training and Consultancy for Nigcomsat 2 Project, N3.5 billion etc., in the Ministry of Communications.
The report also said that what was most appalling was the case of the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing where 82 new projects, principally roads, with a total provision of about N50.63 billion was allegedly inserted in the budget.
In this wise, Nigeria’s membership of the Open Governance Partnership (OGP) last year is a welcome development. We are mostly pleased about it because it is a signal of the readiness of the government to entrench good governance in Nigeria, deepen democracy, and cut corruption down to size.
Countries which have accepted the OGP have a tendency to be more open, transparent and accountable to the people than countries which still operate in shrouded secrecy and mystery.
The Transparency International, TI, 2016 Corruption Perception Index has it that among the 176 countries and territories featured in the corruption research, very few countries could beat the global average mark of 43.
But most countries fell below the average line of corruption index, including Nigeria. The failure by successive governments to implement feasible and sustainable infrastructural development, as captured in yearly budgets, have not only encouraged mass looting of the treasury, but consequently reduced the people to conditions of abject poverty and vulnerability to harsh economic policies.
But take the example of the Dominican Republic: 14% of its population of 10.7 million people were unemployed until recently and it was rated among the most corrupt countries in 2015, by the Transparency International.
Then, there came calls for the DR to reject controversial laws that would make it harder to prosecute public officials for misconduct and corruption. Now, as a result of its status with the OGP, it has improved the effectiveness on good governance, openness, and transparency.
Nigeria can be like that and more. With the adoption of simple data technology to disclose the innards of our budget procurement, we are beginning to see an enhanced public access to fiscal data in government owned portal.
There is also an increasing interest by the public to hold public officials responsible for the management of public funds. Being an OGP compliant-country means putting ordinary citizens on the driver’s sit.
It means blocking shortcomings in our legal systems which create opportunities for corruption. There is a connection between increase in poverty, infant and maternal mortality, crime and unemployment, environmental degradation, poor educational systems, absence of the rule of law, and non-inclusion of citizens in the budget planning processes.
This time, government and civil society organisations are collaborating and formulating policies on governance reforms so as to support governance. This is a rare opportunity for stakeholders from different backgrounds to serve as National Steering Committee, NSC, working together to build an efficient structure of governance.
We expect this will bring about the elements of the rule of law into play and create an opportunity to engage in the processes of governance like government spending, effective oversight functions, etc.
We also expect that reforms in this wise will create conditions which promote fiscal transparency, access to information, asset disclosure, open contracting in the public sector, disclosure in the extractive industries, and the effectiveness of the tax system.
Iyare is of M&E department, ANEEJ, Benin City.
