Uche Usim, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday ordered the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAGF) to commence daily publication of all government income and expenses in order to avail Nigerians into the workings of government.
Speaking at the launch of the Federal Government Financial Transparency Policy (FTP) and portal in Abuja, President Buhari who was represented by the Minister of State, Niger Delta, Mr. Tayo Alasoadura said; “the transparency policy approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) requires that the AGF must publish a daily treasury statement, which will provide information about what came into the national purse and what went out every single day. I repeat every single day. Henceforth, treasury (OAGF) is required to publish this information unfailingly.”
President Buhari further directed that the AGF and all accounting officers of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) must publish daily payments reports.
“With these reports, the Treasury will publish payments of at least N10 million, while all MDAs must publish payments above N5 million made out of all public funds under their purview.
“The information to be published must include the MDA responsible, the beneficiary, the purpose and amount of each payment. Accounting officers are responsible for providing answers to any questions from the public relating to transactions completed by entities under their purview. All MDAs must publish monthly budget performance reports. These reports must include performance of the budget by various dimensions including MDAs, functions and economic activities performed by all federal government agencies.
These reports must be ready within seven days after the end of the month. The AGF must publish monthly fiscal accounts detailing fiscal performance of the federation including receipts from all the collection agencies and payments out of the federation account.
This must be done within 14 days after the end of the month. The AGF and all accounting officers of MDAs must publish quarterly financial statements for government as a whole and for individual MDAs respectively.
These must be published within a month after the end of the quarter. The AGF must publish annual general purpose financial statements while all public sector entities are required to publish statements for their individual entities. These statements must be prepared following international public sector accounting standards and must be ready within a month after the end of the first quarter of the following year”, he added.
While acknowledging that the requirements needed to ensure total compliance to the new rule might be a tall order, the President said systems, which have already been built to support the policy are robust and sufficient.