SFTAS: Niger State Govt. Lauds CSJ’s Efforts In Fiscal Transparency Training

The Niger State government has praised the work of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) in training public officials in the state on the principles and practice of fiscal transparency.

The State’s Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Zakari Abubakar who spoke at the four-day train the trainers capacity building on increasing citizen’s participation in the budget process in Minna told the participants that “the presence of a team of professionals from CSJ in our midst today is a rare opportunity that we must not allow to elude us.”

The training was organised under the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme for Results- a reform programme to strengthen fiscal sustainability and performance. A component of the SFTAS programme is the Disbursement Linked Indicator 2 (DLI 2) focused on “Increasing Openness and Citizens Engagement in the Budget Process”.

Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is the firm hired by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning under the SFTAS to develop, design and provide support for states in the development of a process Guide for the State Budget Office that details the flow of budget development process and documents required for fiscal transparency.

The Niger State Finance Commissioner who is also overseeing the Niger State Planning Commission said, “a lot of concerted efforts have been made by SFTAS in the last three years towards developing templates and tools alongside knowledge needed to sustain and strengthen the achievement of the programme.”

He said that Niger State was one of the few entities in Nigeria that keyed into SFTAS right from inception and “today, we can proudly say notable achievements have been recorded in terms of technical capacity, wider participation of citizens in governance and improved transparency and accountability in all spheres of government activities.”

Abubakar said “Let me use this occasion on behalf of the Niger State Planning Commission to appreciate the contributions of the state Open Government Partnership for facilitating the success of this workshop. I wish to commend the Civil Society representatives for their quest and doggedness in ensuring that the voices of the citizens are reckoned with in governance.”

The training which drew participants from the Niger State Ministry of Finance, Niger State Planning Commission, Niger State Auditor-General Office, Accountant General’s Office and members of the civil society organisations was focused on helping participants integrate ideas on citizens’ participation in the budgeting processes and increase transparency across all stages of the budget.

They were trained on transparency in the formulation, preparation, approval, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to audit of the budget. They were also trained on how to produce simplified citizens’ versions of the pre-budget statement being the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF), executive budget proposal, enacted budget, quarterly budget implementation reports, mid-year budget implementation review, year-end budget implementation report and the yearly audit report.

The training included practical sessions on producing infographics for the citizens’ budget and on how to populate the citizens’ budget.