House of Representatives Fiscal Discipline Promise Compromised… fails to Advocate for the Constitution of Board of Fiscal Responsibility Commission

House of Representatives Fiscal Discipline Promise Compromised

… fails to Advocate for the Constitution of Board of Fiscal Responsibility Commission

The campaign to entrench fiscal transparency in Nigeria has been on for so long. Successive administrations have highlighted this important issue as one of their priorities, however, only a little progress has been made so far. Nonetheless, the advocacy and campaigns by civil society organizations are still ongoing as the country continues to battle fiscal recklessness and corruption. This prompted the House of Representatives (HoR) to include the promotion of fiscal discipline in its revised legislative agenda document.

According to the legislators, the current HoR will ensure that Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is adequately funded. It also stated that it advocates for the formation of the Board of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission. The legislators proposed to achieve this as part of its immediate term intervention.

While the progress was slower than expected in ensuring adequate funding for RMAFC, the Gbajabiamila-led house of representatives has made a significant push for the increase in funding of the RMAFC in the 2020 and 2021 budget compared to what the commission got in 2019. Despite, a slight reduction in total allocation for RMAFC in the 2022 budget, the commission personnel cost gulped more in that year compared to previous years.

When it was founded, the RMAFC was set up under Nigerian law to monitor accruals and disbursements of revenue from the federation account.

Promise: Promote Fiscal Discipline by adequately funding the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and advocacy for the constitution of the Board of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) which has been without a Board for years.

It is important to note that the commission’s funding increased significantly in the year 2021 due to a renewed commitment to capital projects.  In 2021, an estimated 573,629,818 naira was allocated to capital projects like; monitoring reconciliation and recovery of revenue accruals, institutionalizing economic diversification at federal and state levels, and review of the remuneration of public officers’ exercise and monitoring and reconciliation of revenue and recovery compared to 93,895,011 naira that was allocated in 2020.

The success of this Legislative Agenda intervention has been stalled by the non-constitution of the Board of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) despite the confirmation of the chairman of the board by the senate in January 2021. It became imperative to constitute a new board for FRC 8 years after the expiration of the pioneer board tenure on December 4, 2013.

In 2013, an acting chairman was appointed to lead the commission after the expiration of the commission’s pioneer board. However, the past 8 years have been rocky as the commission continues to battle internal employee-management-related crises. In 2017, Independent Corrupt Practices (and other related crimes) Commission (ICPC) ransacked the commission headquarters in the country’s capital, Abuja after a petition against Mr. Maruako by some staff of FRC.

While an Executive Chairman has been appointed, other members of the board which includes Six (6) full-time and Three (3) part-time members are yet to be appointed as against the commission’s Act. According to the information on the Commission’s website, the “Fiscal Responsibility Commission has a 5-year single term Board constituted of an Executive Chairman and Six (6) fulltime Commissioner appointed from the Six Geopolitical Zones, and 3 part-time members representing: (i) the Organized Private Sector (ii) Civil Society engaged in causes relating to probity, transparency and good governance and (iii) the Organized Labour. The Chairman and all members of the Board are appointed by the President subject to confirmation by the Senate.”

Where does that leave us? The promise to promote fiscal discipline has not been totally fulfilled by the legislators. Despite its efforts to ensure an increase in capital projects embarked upon by the RMAFC, the HoR has really lagged on its advocacy for the constitution of a board for the FRC which has been without a statutory board for over 9 years.  

Therefore, we rate this Promise Compromised.

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