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From Uche Usim, Abuja
The Federal Government has sought the full support of Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria in its effort to sustain the fiscal reforms initiated under the $1.5billion World Bank-Assisted States Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme for Results; designed to deepen fiscal transparency and accountability in Public Financial Management (PFM) System and ultimately improving good fiscal governance at sub-national level.
The SFTAS National Programme Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr. Stephen Okon made this call during a sensitization workshop organised for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) which held weekend in Lagos.
Okon explained that as part of its strategies to ensure the sustainability of fiscal reforms at sub-national level, the SFTAS Programme Coordination Unit (PCU) was engaging stakeholders on the demand side like the CSOs who can ensure that fiscal transparency and accountability are sustained in state PFM activities.
He further disclosed that the objectives of the workshop were to deepen the understanding of CSOs on the major programme elements of the SFTAS Programme for results; enhance programme visibility and buy-in; create and sustain mutual lines of communication, contact and understanding between the PCU and the CSOs; enhance community mobilisation for programme ideals’ sustainability; and engender ownership and participation by CSOs post-SFTAS.
“At this juncture, I wish to stress that this programme now in its fourth and final year of implementation needs to be sustained if the full ideals are to be realised. I therefore call on CSOs and the media to continue to promote those ideals and take full ownership of the programme beyond its life span”.
“Some of these ideals already entrenched in the States’ PFM system include online publication of approved Citizens’ budget, Audited Financial Statements, improved procurement practices for increased transparency and value for money; strengthened public debt management and fiscal responsibility framework; improved clearance/reduction of stock of domestic expenditure arrears; and improved debt sustainability”.
The National Programme Coordinator emphasized that beyond the disbursements, States are expected to continue to uphold and sustain the values and ideals of fiscal reforms initiated through the SFTAS programme just as he called on CSOs to use the provision of the SFTAS charter recently endorsed by the governors under the umbrella of Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum to hold governments accountable and promote good fiscal governance at sub-national level.
