Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar
Malami, SAN said Open Government Partnership, joined by the Federal
Government in 2016, has enabled citizens to have more access to
information and improved the transparency of the present government.
Malami who was the coordinating Minster of the Nigeria’s Open
Government Partnership and outgoing Co-Chair made the statement while
handing over co-chairmanship of the OGP National Steering Committee to
the Minister of Budget and National Planning at the 8th OGP meeting
held on Thursday in Abuja.
This is contained in a statement issued by Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu,
Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Office of the
Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and made available to newsmen on weekend.
Malami said the OGP contributed to the government drive for
transparency in the areas of open budget, open contracting, extractive
industry, tax transparency, access to information and citizens
engagement in governance processes as well as reformation of the
Bureau of Public Service.
“The Budget Office of the Federation through consultative process with
relevant government agencies and citizens published the Pre-Budget
statement (2018-2020 MTEF/FSP) and has consistently published a
Citizen’s Gide to the Budget since 2018”.
“The Budget Office of the Federation in line with global best
practices and Open Budget Survey Index, developed the citizens
iMonitor portal which enables citizens across the country to access
budget information in real time to monitor projects while encouraging
proactive feedback to the government,” he said.
He noted that in order to ensure improved transparency, prevent
corruption and enhanced citizens’ participation in Nigeria through
increased disclosure of information, the Bureau of Public Procurement
(BPP) developed the Nigerian Open Contracting Portal (NOCOPO).
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He said OGP also saw to the Nigerian Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative and publication oil and Gas Audit Reports,
noting that the Procedure Guide for the Determination of the Quantity
and Quality of Petroleum and Petroleum Products in Nigeria were also
published by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) made
available to the public.
Pursuant to the Addis Tax Initiative, the Minister said Nigeria has
signed the Multilateral Competent Agreement on Country-by-Country
reporting.
According to him, the Federal Inland Revenue Service has also singed
unto the Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool in order to
assist the agency to assess the extent of efficiency of the tax
administration at the federal and state levels as well as to determine
the efficiency of the transparency of tax assessments.
One of the President’s commitments at the London Anti-Corruption
Summit in 2016, the Minister noted that was the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC) and the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency
Initiative (NEITI) have completed consultations with stakeholders on
the implementation of Beneficial Ownership Register.
Malami said that the Nigeria’s Expression of Interest for the OGP
Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the establishment of beneficial register of
owners of companies in Nigeria as part of commitment in the just
completed NAP has been granted.
He said Nigeria was recently awarded 500,000 dollars to see to the
fruition of this activity with the Corporate Affairs Commission as the
lead agency under the oversight of the National Steering Committee.
He said in order to sustain the OGP implementation in the country, the
Federal Executive Council approved the establishment of OGP
implementation units in all public institutions. He said 14 states
have joined the OGP in the past two years and there are signs that
more states will sign onto the process in view of the impact of the
OGP in the national level.
While urging the 2nd National Steering Committee to build on what was
achieved, the outgoing chair called on the incoming NSC to render the
necessary leadership guidance and directive that will ensure
uninterrupted operations of the OGP projects in the country.
