Public Finance Management: ICAN President seeks easy access to fiscal information
By: Bisi Akingbade
The 58th President of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN, Alhaji Musa Isa, has stressed the need to increase the ease of accessing fiscal information on the three tiers of government.
Alhaji Isa in his keynote address at the Public Presentation of the 2020 and 2021 ICAN Accountability Index, ICAN-AI, Reports stated that this will encourage more robust interrogations, by stakeholders on how the country's fiscal resources are managed by its stewards.
Isa who disclosed that the 2020 and 2021 reports have a significant improvement in the percentage of information made available during assessment exercises, recording 50% and 53% overall information availability respectively.
He stated that the percentages are improvements from the 28% and 35% average availability rates in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
The ICAN President stated that the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years revealed major gaps in Nigeria's Public Financial Management system, especially low level of publicly available information on the fiscal activities of the three tiers of govenmemt.
He appreciated every one presented at special occasion of the Public Presentation of the 2020 and 2021 Reports of The ICAN-AI.
Isa stated that ICAN-A1 was launched in 2017 and that the institute is encouraged that the ICAN-AI is gaining traction and attracting the interest of stakeholders in Nigeria’s Public Finance Management (PFM) system.
"The daunting challenges we faced during the assessment exercises, notwithstanding, we present, today, reports that passed through painstaking quality assurance processes.
"The release of the reports was delayed due to the global and local disruptions such as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the ENDSARS protests in the country. These incidents did not only significantly alter the timeline for the field exercise, but they also informed the Institute’s resolve to process two assessment years simultaneously.
The two-year project further prolonged the exercise. Despite these challenges, we adhered to best practice and ensured that our promise to produce high-quality reports was not compromised. The reports are therefore an accurate reflection and account of the PFM performances of the governments in Nigeria. It is our expectations that it will continue to engender healthy PFM practices among the tiers of government in the country", he explained.
The President said that the Institute is indeed proud of its acknowledged role in entrenching accountability and transparency in public governance through this novel Index, assuring stakeholders and their partners, within and outside Nigeria, of its consistent commitment to improving the quality of the annual report.
"We indeed look forward to seeing the ICAN-AI Framework embraced by all African countries as a unified tool for tracking and improving public sector governance in the continent. The bespoke intervention considers the peculiarities of developing economies and African nations.
"Let me add at this point that the ICAN-AI adapts the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Framework, taking into consideration the public finance peculiarities of emerging economies. The ICAN-AI Framework consists of 5 Pillars, 25 Indicators and 70 Dimensions.
"As the global PFM space evolves, the ICAN-AI Framework’s flexibility ensures that it accommodate new dimensions. The Framework is reviewed annually and relevant issues such as climate change and gender perspectives will be incorporated in due course and as circumstances require," he explained.
Isa remarked that the reports have provided detailed analyses of the three tiers of government with a view to informing the public about each entity’s level of adherence to best practices in PFM.
He expressed the appreciation of institute to the immense contributions of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the UK Department for International Development (DfID) during the maiden edition of this report.
"It is our aspiration that the project’s value to the economy will see it receive renewed support from our foundational as well as new sponsors. We also appeal to members of the fourth estate to continue to give wide publicity to this unique Index as we all collaborate to improve PFM practices in the country," he stated.
The President specially recognized all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies who availed us access to the information used in developing the reports even as he acknowledged the immense cooperation of the Honourable Minister of Finance, all the thirty-six States Governors as well as the heads of relevant parastatals of governments, the contribution of the six Coordinators and seventy-four Assessors, whose field work facilitated data collection is well appreciated.
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