With the subsisting gaps, the report urged stakeholders to bridge gaps to sustain and strengthen various anticorruption measures to make them more effective tools for deepening good governance, service delivery, shared prosperity, and democracy in the country.
The report was titled “Imperative of Strengthening Nigeria’s Transparency and Accountability Measures”.
“Whether now or in the future, Nigeria needs more transparency and accountability, not less,” the report released on Monday in Abuja and produced with the support of the MacArthur Foundation, said.
It added, “As Nigeria prepares for a new government, a stocktaking of the transparency and accountability measures is desirable to ensure that the zeal for anticorruption is sustained and that the prevailing measures are fit for purpose, and further strengthened and institutionalised.”
The report, which was put together by a group of experts, examined 16 transparency and accountability mechanisms within four clusters: norms and values, public financial management, open disclosure, and sanctions.
Some of the measures assessed include asset declaration, freedom of information, public procurement, whistle-blower policy, annual and routine audits, government’s e-payment platforms (such as IPPIS and GIFMIS), publication of subnational transfers, disclosure of extractive sector revenues and beneficial ownership to prosecution and asset recovery.
“Most of the interventions have been made since the return to civil rule in 1999, and some of them have yielded some results and milestones.
“Despite the achievements, the problem of transparency and accountability remains. The assumption that transparency and accountability automatically lead to good governance did not take into account attendant challenges such as social behaviors in the forms of resistance and sabotage.”
After examining the rationales, histories, achievements and challenges of the selected transparency and accountability initiatives, the reports recommend several measures to argument the gains already achieved.
Some of the key recommendations include the need to enhance legal backing for some of the initiatives, faithful enforcement or implementation of existing laws, improvement in capacity and funding for some of the implementing agencies, enhancement of collaboration across tiers of government, and implementation of a sustained and strategic campaign on value reorientation.
Commenting on the report, the founder of Agora Policy, Waziri Adio, described the intellectual work as timely.
“This is a very timely report. At a moment of transition, there is a danger that the focus on anti-corruption may fade, especially given how anti-corruption barely registered as a major campaign issue during the 2023 elections. The report is an important reminder about the centrality of transparency and accountability to citizens’ welfare and the democratic project.
“It also underscores the heavy investments that Nigeria and its development partners have made in the transparency and accountability space over time, perhaps even more than in some advanced countries, and the need to ensure that these investments do not go to waste, that the country derives adequate returns on these vital investments,” Adio said.
Meanwhile, the report also urged the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to sign the newly passed audit bill as one of his parting gifts
Aside from that, the report also recommends the strengthening of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation through improved staffing and better remuneration of the staff of the agency, and prompt presidential assent to the newly passed audit bill.
“Nigeria needs a fresh law that guarantees independence and powers to sanction the AuGF in line with established standards of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions. Without the powers to sanction, the AuGF is more or less a toothless bulldog.
“President Muhammadu Buhari should sign the Federal Audit Service Bill into law before he leaves office. The bill, which was passed by the National Assembly on 29 March 2023, repeals the Audit Ordinance of 1956. The bill strengthens the operations and independence of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation. It aligns with the present times and with global best practices and it enhances the utility of auditing as a powerful transparency and accountability mechanism.
“President Buhari refused assent to an earlier version of the bill passed by the 8th National Assembly. He should quickly assent to the 2023 version once he receives a clean copy from the 9th National Assembly. Whatever misgivings the president may have can be accommodated in subsequent amendments. President Buhari should see the law as one of his parting gifts to the country,” it added.
