The sleek figure of Ahmed Idris, the Accountant-General of the Federation, works his way around the crowded, oak-panelled office, in Abuja whenever the federal accounts allocation committee assemble to take decision on the sharing of the federation accounts. He sits down and reasons with MDAs and states to reconcile all payments in transit that has not hit the account yet, and take the net balance. That is fairness.
For Idris, meetings help him reach out and forge a network of support and build transparency. For the other stakeholders, it’s a chance to meet someone many expect to one day move up to higher responsibilties.
Idris has the strengths that so many people in government offices so conspicuously lack, not only critical thinking and complex competence but a grasp of detail. And his speech is a reflection of the depth of commitment, professionalism, faith in human and civilized principles and values. These attributes help him navigate the challenges of managing the federation accounts equitably. He is also concerned with e-governace and Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) operations.
while many public officials have floundered during the coronavirus pandemic, Idris has been a beacon of calm and competence, intervening swiftly on how to spend billions of Naira supporting the different tiers of government so concerned with how to create jobs as the economy went into lockdown free fall. With restrictions lifted and life gradually coming into force in different parts of the country, Idris been part of those putting people minds at rest.
He is a man who believes in transparency And he communicates about it quite effectively in order to promote transparency. Last year December when President Muhammadu Buhari launched the transparency portal. Idris quickly worked out modalities for its workability
He gave a fluent defence of this measures at a media conference early this year.
“Nobody can be open without being transparent. One cannot be transparent without being accountable. In all these the principles of stewardship is entrenched to a very large extent on all workers in the government offices, agencies, ministries, parastatals and so on. These are the stewards. The public has a duty and responsibility to be informed and enlightened about what is going on, particularly where the management of resources or public funds are being spent. That is what the government is trying to do with most of these reform initiatives.
The objective is to be transparent, open, accountable, and to ensure the public is aware of what is going on with funds and resources being managed or kept on their behalf, reminding everyone that this is the treasury of the nation. What this means is that resources come in and out for one programme or another.”
Sometimes ago early this year, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, OAGF, began a comprehensive review of treasury forms and other accounting source documents in use in all ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, of the Federal Government.
A statement by Henshaw Ogubike, Director, Information, Press and Public Relations, noted that the review was in exercise of the mandate of the Accountant General of the Federation under FR.107 (n) to issue officially-approved forms bearing treasury numbers for use in all Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies to ensure uniformity.
It added that already, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Idris, has inaugurated an inter-ministerial committee to handle the review of the documents.
Speaking at the inauguration of the committee, Ahmed said the committee was expected to identify all treasury forms and accounting source documents presently in use; come up with new formats in line with the public financial reforms; recommend additions or deletions of the contents; assign relevant number systems to the treasury forms and review the documents in line with GIFMIS (Government Integrated Financial Management Information System) operations.
He stressed that in carrying out the assignment, the committee should be guided by the Federal Governments quest for adoption of e-governance at all levels and the fact that all the public finance reforms initiatives being driven by the Treasury are predicated on full deployment of ICT solutions.
Rationale for the review of the documents was because the contents of the treasury forms and other accounting source documents in use were no longer relevant and useful to drive the various public finance management reforms of the Federal Government, which are mostly ICT-driven. As a result, a comprehensive review and update of these accounting source documents was thus imperative for an efficient and successful implementation of government’s financial management reforms.
“He reiterated the government’s resolve to ensure a successful review of the documents and charged the committee to give the assignment all amount of seriousness it deserves and deliver on time.”
Last December, the Federal Government launched the transparency portal as part of the reforms against corruption. Under this arrangement, ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) were directed to submit daily, monthly, quarterly and annual treasury/financial
Addressing the press some months later, Idris explained that his office had have rolled out a portal to actualize the policy. He added that part of the problem is the sensitization of the public and capacity building for the officials that will handle the system. According to him,this is because the transparency portal is completely new and the operators at the MDAs would require to be trained. That is in the pipeline
Speaking further, he disclosed that the OAGF was giving them a maximum of four months to update their skills. Not only that. It would call the MDAs and sit with them on the portal for them to ask questions on what should be done and the way they should be handling the reporting from their respective MDAs, asserting that the fact that the president launched the
“We ae now trying to upload information to the portal. Some information are historical. They will need to be put in the system. Before that is done, the Financial Officers and those who will be managing the system from the MDAs will need to be trained. The public needs to be sensitized on what they should be expecting. All these are being rolled out now.”
Therefore, the fact that the portal has been launched does not mean that we are 100 per cent available to the public immediately. But, the portal is active. There are some useful information there. Every week one checks the portal, there is always an improvement in terms of what is available and what we were given. That is how we will populate the portal.
Talking about whether all these should not have come before the launching of the portal, what I have to say is that you cannot jump the gun.
“In government, you don’t begin to implement a policy unless there is an approval. Even the treasury single account (TSA), when we started, that was why the government had problems. There was some resistance. But, eventually, we are now there. Likewise the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS). That is why we are having problems. Some are real problems because of resistance. Some because you cannot jump the gun to implement it. A budget cannot be implemented unless the National Assembly passes it and Mr President signs it into law.”
The Accountant-general’s affirmation of its support for transparency around the nation is a clear reflection of the deep strategic awareness of the danger of lack of transparency, which has infested many people in the country.
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