Nigeria : Country Financial Accountability Assessment
The Federal Government of Nigeria retains the vestiges of good systems for planning, budgeting, managing and controlling public resources. But their performance has deteriorated to such an extent that they provide negligible assurance that moneys a...
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| Format: | Country Financial Accountability Assessment |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2000/09/2335889/nigeria-country-financial-accountability-assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14495 |
| Summary: | The Federal Government of Nigeria
retains the vestiges of good systems for planning,
budgeting, managing and controlling public resources. But
their performance has deteriorated to such an extent that
they provide negligible assurance that moneys are used
entirely for their intended purpose. The same is true at the
state level. To return to an acceptable level of financial
accountability will require sustained action over several
years. In the interim, risks of waste, diversion and misuse
of funds are assessed as high. This has clear implications
for both Government and the Bank: the former needs to
improve financial accountability along the lines outlined in
this report; and the latter needs to support this process
and in the meantime to build explicit risk minimization
actions into all its Nigerian operations. Among the
recommendations presented for the public sector are to
address: the calculation, control, management, protection,
reporting and disclosure of national oil revenues; the
adequacy of procedures for drawing money from the
Consolidated Revenue Fund and for ensuring that transactions
on accounts held at the Central Bank are properly
authorized, managed and audited; the legal provisions
requiring the public disclosure of assets and other valuable
interests of public officials and politicians and the
recovery of public sector assets illegally acquired;
implementation and enforcement of the Anti-Corruption Act;
and the legal provisions and enforcement arrangements for
combating money laundering including the adequacy of central
bank controls over commercial banks. Among the
recommendations made to improve private sector participation
are to: conduct a review of corporate governance and private
sector financial accountability along the lines of the King
Committee in South Africa; update the Companies and Allied
Matters Act so that it reflects such principles and
strengthens company audit; accelerate the issuance of
accounting standards in areas where there are none at
present but are available under International Accounting
Standards (IASs) promulgated by the International Accounting
Standards Committee (IASC); establish monitoring and
enforcement mechanisms to ensure that all listed companies
comply with national and IASs. In this regard, there is need
to sufficiently strengthen the NASB's technical and
professional capabilities; and ensure that the procedures
for filing company information and providing public access
to it are adequate. |
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