Jigawa, Kaduna, Bauchi Emerge Leaders in ICAN’s Accountability Index

•Rivers gets lowest ranking

Dike Onwuamaeze in Lagos and Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

Three northern states, namely Jigawa, Kaduna and Bauchi States took the first three positions in the Public Finance Management (PFM) report of the ICAN’s Accountability Index’s (ICAN-AI), which was released yesterday in Lagos by the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria’s (ICAN), Mr. Tijani Musa Isa.

ICAN stated that the report was meant to promote high quality public finance management’s system in Nigeria and encourage the development of robust and credible PFM database.

According to the report, which was titled ICAN-AI 2021 Assessment Report for the 2020 Fiscal Year, Jigawa, Kaduna and Bauchi earned 75.1 per cent, 74.7 per cent and 74.3 per cent to emerge first, second and third respectively.

Also Edo and Niger States scored 73.5 per cent and 64.9 per cent to take the fourth and fifth positions respectively.

However, Rivers State, which was ranked 37, took the last position with 20.4 per cent.

Other laggards in the report were Zamfara, Imo, Oyo and Sokoto States that scored 24.9 per cent, 24.9 per cent, 24.5 per cent and 23.7 per cent to take the 33, 33, 35, and 36 positions respectively.

Moreover, Jigawa and Kaduna States also took the first and second positions respectively in the ICAN-AI’s 2020 Assessment Report for the 2019 fiscal year.

ICAN vouched that the quality assurance process followed in the production of these reports satisfied all the requirements of its governing council.

It stated that “accountability and transparency in the management of public finance is a sensitive aspect of the activities of government at all levels.

“In Nigeria, lack of accountability and transparency in public finance have stunted the growth and development in every sector of the economy.

“Accountability and transparency have largely been compromised by those holding positions of responsibility in the public sector.

“There is the general perception among the populace that the so called dividends of democracy are not equitably shared.

“ICAN’s response to this situation, therefore, is the development and launching of the ICAN Accountability Index (ICAN-AI).”

Isa, who delivered the keynote address during the Public Presentation of the 2020 & 2021 ICAN Accountability Index (ICAN-AI), said the report has, “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 said the report adapted, “the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) framework, taking into consideration the public finance peculiarities of emerging economies.  The ICAN-AI Framework consists of five pillars, 25 indicators and 70 dimensions.”

The five pillars are budget credibility; policy-based fiscal strategy and budgeting; external audit and legislative scrutiny; management of assets and debts as well as control in budget execution, accounting and reporting.

He said: “The first two editions of the report, covering 2017 and 2018 fiscal years, revealed major gaps in Nigeria’s Public Finance Management’s (PFM) system, especially low level of publicly available information on the fiscal activities of the three tiers of government.

“We are encouraged that the 2020 and 2021 reports reveal a significant improvement in the percentage of information made available during assessment exercises, recording 50 per cent and 53 per cent overall information availability respectively.

“These percentages are improvements from the 28 per cent and 35 per cent average availability rates in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

“While these improvements in information availability is a welcome development, there is so much room for improvement and need for a higher commitment to fiscal transparency and accountability.

“There is the need to increase the ease of accessing fiscal information on the various entities. This will encourage more robust interrogations, by stakeholders, on how the country’s fiscal resources are managed by its stewards.”

Governor of Jigawa State, Mr. Muhammad Badaru Abubakar, who was represented by the auditor general of the state, Mr. Garba Muhammad Dutse, said that the government and people of Jigawa were delighted that the state emerged first in PFM’s report.

The ICAN boss commended Governor Bala Mohammed and his team for their outstanding commitment, extraordinary performance and high sense of accountability and transparency which they brought to bear in administering the public finances of Bauchi State.

Among others, the Mohammed’s administration recently introduced Treasury Single Account (TSA) tax administration which assisted in drastically eliminating multiple taxation and shoring of additional sources of revenue in the state.

Mohammed was represented at the event by the State Accountant General Dr, Sa’idu Abubakar, accompanied by Mukhtar Gidado, Special Adviser Media to the Governor.

In his vote of thanks after receiving the award, Abubakar applauded the Governing Board of ICAN for the recognition and honour done to the entire people of Bauchi.

He said Bauchi State was indeed deeply elated to rank third on the ICAN -AI Assessment of 2021 and described it as a huge leapfrog from the rank of 20th in the 2020 report, which was an evidence that the state was doing the right thing that strive to surpass the previous performance.

He also assured ICAN that the award would further ginger the governor to do more in ensuring accountability and transparency in governance as the Bauchi State Government has proposed commitment to ICAN’s Students Special Project.