The Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Victor Muruako Esq, has restated the commitment of the commission to assisting state governments in consolidating their ability to maintain credibility in public finance management.
He stated this at the opening ceremony of the three-day technical assistance workshop on Strengthening of Fiscal Management at the Sub-Regional Level held in Lagos.
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According to Muruako, the FRC particularly seeks to address the ‘salient issue’ of borrowing by governments of the federation; and the need to carefully manage the risks of poor transparency and accountability often associated with public debts, borrowing and loans.
“It is important to stress that while states of the federation have full powers to appropriate and manage their respective expenditures and revenues under the fiscal federalism practised by Nigeria, the powers of the states to make laws and regulations that control public borrowings and loans are totally subject to the powers of the federal government in this regard.
“This is because loans and borrowing by governments in the federation come under the Exclusive List in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
He commended sub-nationals that have raised their internally generated revenue base, and appealed to other state governments to show love to their citizens by investing energy in improving their revenue bases.
“Again, we commend state governments that have taken the business of governance seriously enough to institute systems for planning, growing, harvesting and accounting for their IGR, all in a manner that is clear to their citizens, transparent to stakeholders and accommodates citizens participation,” Muruako said.
