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).
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.
