States to get $700m for public finance management reforms

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said the Federal
Government would release $700m to states to improve the level of
governance and public finance management.

He said this at the annual conference of Auditors-General of
Nigeria.

The conference with theme “Nigeria’s drive towards the
achievement of Sustainable Development Goals: The strategic roles
of Auditors-General” was attended by Auditors-General from the 36
states of the federation.

The amount is expected to come as a grant from the World Bank
based on the ability of state governments to effectively implement
the Fiscal Sustainability Programme.

One of the objectives of the programme is to ensure the long
term viability of states through implementation of sound financial
management reforms.

Some of the reforms are biometric capture of all civil servants,
the establishment of an efficiency unit, implementation of
continuous audit, improvement in Independently Generated Revenue
and measures to achieve sustainable debt management.

Buhari who was represented by Head of the Civil Service of the
Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, explained that the release of the
fund was one of the several initiatives by his administration to
enthrone transparency and accountability in the public sector.

This, according to him, was vital to strengthen the fight
against corruption.

He gave some of the initiatives to include the state’s fiscal
transparency, accountability and sustainability programme, and new
measures for expenditure controls, budgeting and financial
reporting requirements.

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