President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday said the Accountant General of the Federation and all accounting officers must publish daily reports of their spending in the region of N10m while all Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government must do the same for payments above N5m made from public treasury.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Head, Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Patricia Deworitshe, after the launch of the Federal Government Transparency Policy/Open-Treasury Portal in Abuja.
It stated that the Federal Government had also approved the Financial Transparency Policy and Portal that required the publication of public financial information through the Open Treasury Portal as a way of demonstrating transparency and accountability to the public and its cooperating partners.
The statement added that Buhari, who was represented at the event by the Minister of State, Niger Delta Affairs, Omotayo Alasoadura, further directed that all MDAs must publish monthly Budget Performance Report.
“The President said these reports must include performance of the budget by various dimensions including MDAs, functions and economic activities performed by all the Federal Government’s agencies.
“He said these reports must be ready within seven days after the end of the month.
“The President pledged to Nigerians that his administration would change the way business is done in the country by improving revenue collections as well as spending through a better system. He said the Accountant-General of the Federation, and all accounting officers were required to publish daily reports at least N10m (spending) while all the MDAs must publish payments above N5m made out of all public funds under their purview.
“He also reiterated that monthly fiscal accounts detailing fiscal performance of the Federal Government must be done within 14 days after the end of the month. The AGF and all Accounting Officers of the MDAs must publish quarterly financial statements for government as a whole and for individual MDAs respectively which must be published quarterly,” the statement added.
It stated that Buhari also directed the AGF to publish Annual General Purpose Financial Statement, while all Public Sector Entities were required to publish their individual entities.
In her address at the event, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said that the launch of the Financial Transparency policy marked another milestone in the quest for the administration to promote the principles of accountability and transparency in the public financial management system.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, assured Nigerians that the treasury policy was positioned to implement the new financial transparency policy portal.
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