SERDEC, International Budget Partnership, UK, Centre for Social Justice, BudgIT and CIRDDOC launches the 2015 Nigeria Report of the Open Budget Survey

International Budget Partners, SERDEC, CSJ, Budgit, CODE, CIRDDOC Partners today to launch the Nigeria Open Budget Survey 2015 Result. The Open Budget Survey is the world’s only independent comparable measure of budget transparency, participation and oversight.

The Nigeria OBS 2015 Result Recommends as Follows:

On Improving Transparency:

Nigeria should prioritize the following actions to improve budget transparency:

·        Publish a Mid-Year Review and Audit Report.

·        Publish in a timely manner the Pre-Budget Statement and In-Year Reports.

·        Increase the comprehensiveness of the Executive’s Budget Proposal by Presenting more details on classification of expenditures for future, prior, and Budget years and on classification of revenues for future and budget years.

On Improving Participation

Nigeria should prioritize the following actions to improve budget participation:

·        Establish credible and effective mechanisms (i.e., public hearings, surveys, focus groups) for capturing a range of public perspectives during budget planning, and introduce public engagement mechanisms to support monitoring of budget implementation.

·        Hold legislative hearings to review and scrutinize Audit Reports.

·        Establish formal mechanisms for the public to assist the supreme audit institution to formulate its audit program and participate in audit investigations.

On Improving Oversight

Nigeria should prioritize the following actions to strengthen budget oversight:

·        Ensure the Executive’s Budget Proposal is provided to legislators at least three months before the start of the budget year.

·        In law and practice, ensure the legislature is consulted prior to the spending of contingency funds that were not identified in the Enacted Budget.

·        Ensure the supreme audit institution has adequate funding to perform its duties, as determined by an independent body (e.g., the legislature or judiciary).