By Abdulrahman Aliagan
The United States Department of State has said that Nigeria as a country did not make any remarkable progress in fiscal transparency.
The statement was contained in a document released on Thursday by the U.S. Department of State tagged: 2019 Fiscal Transparency Report, the report that spanning January 1 – December 31, 2018.
The annual publication that usually reels out quality information on how governments raise taxes, borrow, spend, invest, and manage public assets and liabilities as well as highlighting the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency developed, updated, and strengthened by the Department in consultation with other relevant federal agencies.
It reviews governments that were originally identified in the 2014 Fiscal Transparency Report, and assesses those that did not meet the minimum fiscal transparency requirements and indicates whether those governments made significant progress toward meeting the requirements during the review period of January 1 – December 31, 2018.
The report also gave insights on the use of the Fiscal Transparency Innovation Fund.
The American Government undertakes annual reviews of the fiscal transparency of governments that receive U.S. assistance.
The assessment helps to ensure that U.S. taxpayer funds are used appropriately and provide opportunities to dialogue with governments on the importance of fiscal transparency.
The report notes that the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency include having key budget documents that are publicly available, substantially complete, and generally reliable.
“The review includes an assessment of the transparency of processes for awarding government contracts and licenses for natural resource extraction,” it states.
According to the report, “Fiscal transparency is a critical element of effective public financial management, helps build market confidence, and underpins economic sustainability.”
It added that fiscal transparency fosters greater government accountability by providing a window into government budgets for citizens, helping citizens hold their leadership accountable, and facilitating better-informed public debate.
The department further stated that, “During the review period, the government made its executive budget proposal, enacted budget, and end-of-year report accessible to the general public, including online. The executive budget proposal and the enacted budget, however, were not published within a reasonable period of time. Information on debt obligations was publicly available. Budget documents provided detailed estimates for revenue and expenditure but did not include allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises.
“The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation did not have fully audited financial reports that were available to the public. The government maintained off-budget accounts not subject to adequate oversight or audit. Due to oil price fluctuations, actual revenues and expenditures varied significantly from estimated figures making budget documents unreliable. Nigeria’s supreme audit institution completed audits of the government’s budget and reportedly made audit reports on its website.
“The criteria and procedures by which the national government awards contracts or licenses for natural resource extraction were specified in law and regulation. The government has appeared to follow applicable laws and regulations in practice. Basic information on natural resource extraction awards was publicly available.”
It said, “Nigeria’s fiscal transparency would be improved by publishing its executive budget proposal and enacted budget within a reasonable period of time, detailing allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises, improving the reliability of budget documents by producing and publishing a supplemental budget when actual revenues and expenditures do not correspond to those in the enacted budget, making full audit reports for significant, large state-owned enterprises publicly available, and subjecting off-budget accounts to adequate audit and oversight and making information on such accounts publicly available.
The Department concluded that, of the 140 governments evaluated pursuant to the Act plus Equatorial Guinea, 67 did not meet the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency.
Of these 67, however, 13 governments made significant progress toward meeting the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency.
Nigeria is one of the countries that did not meet the minimum requirements for fiscal transparency.
Fiscal transparency refers to the publication of information on how governments raise, spend, and manage public resources.