Critical Stakeholders Seek Enforcement Power, Better Funding for FRC to Bolster Public Finance Management 

•Senator: It’s best suited to ensure transparency in MDAs 

•Oyedele, Enang decry neglect

•Fmr presidential aide queries source of funding for extended 2024 capital budget

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

Critical stakeholders have called for better funding and strengthening of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) by urgently reviewing the enabling law–Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA 2007) with a view to vesting the Commission with the powers to check

fiscal impunity in public finance management.

The call to make the FRC play its pivotal role in enthroning transparency, accountability and sustainable financial management system was raised by notable members of the executive ànd legislative arms of government at the just-ended two-day high-level interactive session on “Strengthening Collaboration Between Legislature and Executive for Sustainable Financial Management,” organised by the Federal Ministry of Finance, in Abuja.

The FRC was set up under former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration to monitor and enforce the provisions of the enabling Act, which provides for the prudent management of the nation’s resources, ensure long-term mpacro-economic stability of the national economy, and secure greater accountability and transparency in fiscal operations within a medium term fiscal framework.

Over the years, its operations have been hamstrung by a combination of poor funding and lack of power to sanction  Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that run foul of fiscal laws.

These have limited its ability to bark and to bite in the face of rising public debt, dearth of prudence, accountability and transparency in the nation’s public finance management system.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Mohammed Musa Sani who painted a rather uninspiring picture of some Government-owned Enterprises (GOEs), said: ” I think there are ways we can now try to strengthen the Fiscal Responsibility Commission so that they will fully be able to discharge their responsibilities. “

According to him, during oversight by the parliament, revenue generating agencies find it extremely difficult to open their books for National Assembly members to scrutinise.

“But the law has allowed the Fiscal Responsibility Commission to look into their books and by so doing, will be able to do a lot to save the economy of this country,” Sani said, noting that a review of the Fiscql Responsibility  Act 2007 to strengthen the commission to perform was imperative.

He lamented the underhand practices of some revenue generating agencies which border on lack of transparency in their operations.

Citing the case of an unnamed agency, Sani noted that when it filed its revenue receipts for 2022 in 2025, it smacked of fraud.

Referring to the agency, he said: “Where is the receipt for 2022, and you’re presenting a receipt for 2025 referencing revenue that had been generated in 2022? What does that tell you in accounting? Lack of transparency For me, I call it a fraud.”

Also, speaking, the Chairman, Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele decried the apparent neglect of a critical agency like the FRC, lamenting that his recent visit to its operational headquarters was a testament to how much  the critical agency has been neglected.

Oyedele noted that it smacked of insincerity to seek to strengthen public finance management when the FRC is starved of the much-needed funding to effectively perform its statutory role.

According to him, the FRC is grossly underfunded such that even renewing its rent had become difficult, calling for urgent steps to strengthen the all-important Commission.

In the same vein, a former senator/

Presidential Adviser and Liaison to the National Assembly, Senator Ita Enang who presented the keynote address at the event, described the Fiscal Responsibility Commission as the biggest institution to manage the economy, regretting  that it was  the most neglecte public institution.

“Of all the parastatals and agencies pivotal to the success of the collaboration between the two arms for the success of the economy coordination mandate, and the most powerful, and biggest of all of them is the Fiscal Responsibility Commission established under Fiscal Responsibility ACT, Cap F40, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, but the most ignored and abused.

“The biggest institution to manage the economy is the Fiscal Responsibility Commission. It’s the most important agency to.manage the economy, yet it is the most neglected,” Enang said.

Also, in her contrbutions, the Permament Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya called for an urgent review of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the strengthening of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission to enable it play the critical role it was established to play to ensure fiscal  discipline in  public finance management.

Jafiya who noted that the need for the Commission to play a more visible role had become more imperative in the current administration of President Bola Tinubu, also appealed to the National Assembly to drastically reduce the regular invitation of top members of the executive to interface with the parliament.

Jafiya recommended the setting up of a liaison between the executive and legislature arms to address the development.

Meanwhile, Ita Enang has queried the source of funding of the 2024 capital budget which runs simultaneously with the 2025 fiscal plan until June.

Speaking at the technical session of the event, Enang wondered where the federal government would source the revenue to fund both budgets.

The National Assembly  had last year extended the implementation of the capital component of the 2024 Budget to June 2025.

The former senator stated that he was at a loss on how the revenue would be generated to fund last year’s capital vote and at the same time finance this year’s budget simultaneously.