From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
A cluster of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the aegis of Growth Initiatives for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT), has lauded efforts by the National Assembly to amend the Fiscal Responsibility Act ( FRA), 2007.
The CSOs, in a statement, jointly signed by Oke Epia, Executive Director, Orderpaper and Faith Nwadishi, Executive Director, Centre for Transparency Advocacy ( CTA), said the initiative aligns with recent push for reforms in public finance management.
They expressed optimism that the amendment of the FRA will amongst others, address issues of accountant in public finance, as well as give impetus to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) to discharge its functions, effectively.
The CSOs said : “We believe that the amendment of the FRA will, amongst other things, address the issues of accountability, transparency, and lack of prudence in public finance, and also empower the Fiscal Responsibility Commission to stand up to its responsibility in checking wanton disregard for the provisions of the law by MDAs of the Federal Government.
“Through our GIFT Nigeria project, designed to catalyse reforms around Transparency, Accountability, and Good Governance (TAGG) vis-à-vis Public Finance Management (PFM) and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) project by Palladium, we have advocated vigorously for an amendment of the FRA 2007 to bring about enduring solutions to the public finance management challenges plaguing the country.
“We, however, urge the 10th National Assembly to go beyond mere expression of commitment to actually achieve the desired objective of amending the FRA, unlike its predecessor, which failed to pass the amendment bill after several efforts by stakeholders, including the GIFT cluster and civil society organisations to make it do so.”