Transparency in budgeting and contracting mostly remains missing in state governments. Even more uphill is the task for civic organisations in partnering with these governments to help establish open portals. Incentivising governments to coerce fiscal accountability has proved effective, albeit on a small scale. But for most governments, lack of political will or ignorance on the importance of an open government has forestalled progress.
- Only two states out of 19 published audited financial statements since 2014;
- Incentivisation such as the World Bank’s STFA program encouraged fiscal transparency to an extent;
- Civic organisations face an uphill battle in partnering with state governments to establish online portals;
- While establishing open government data was one side of the coin, details of these audit reports are the other side;
- For the most part, however, lack of political will and ignorance hamper progress.
Transparent governance has been an arduous journey for Nigeria, only bearing some fruit with open government portals. Despite this, however, expectation differs from reality. In six years, only two of 19 states published audited financial statements, a Dataphyte analysis shows.
Probing the open database maintained by the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI) revealed that 19 out of the 36 subnational governments in Nigeria published their audited financial statements for 2019. Of the 19 states, however, only two states, Gombe and Kano have published the financial statements of the states since 2014. Between 2014 and 2019, Akwa Ibom, Ekiti, Lagos, and Katsina have published for five years. Close to them are Kaduna, Kwara, Niger and Rivers states who have published for four years. While seven states published for three years, a majority (11 states) published only two financial audits since 2014.
International and indigeneous efforts
To support fiscal transparency and open government data, the World Bank launched the $750 million SFTAS program. And since its 2017 debut, it has led many subnational institutions to publish documents relating to their fiscal operations. According to an expert, the Bank’s financial incentives paved the way for more governments, interested in accessing to publish their fiscal data. The bank further vetted governments and institutions through its annual performance assessment (APS). Part of said criteria included an annual disbursement-linked result (DLR). Ifeoma Onyebuchi described the program as a propeller for states to make open their contracts, budgets, and budget performance profile.
At state levels, an important component of the disbursement-linked indicators (DLI) include open contracting, open audit, open budget and FOI portals. Already, several civil society organisations have been leading the open government initiatives across the states. To this end, the Public and Private Development Centre has supported six states to develop open contracting portals modelled after its advocacy tool, Budeshi. Speaking with Ifeoma Onyebuchi, Program Coordinator of the Centre, she said that the plan is being finalised to extend the support to additional states.
Likewise, the open budget advocacy platform, BudgIT Foundation, is also working with state governments across the country to develop the Open Budget Portals. Not to mention it has trained 108 directors of budget, finance and planning across the 36 states on the use of the citizen’s budget template. Tolulope Agunloye, the Foundation’s Manager, said BudgIT signed a memorandum of understanding with Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Anambra, Kogi on the subnational transparency; this included training civil servants of the ministry on the use of the portal, transfer and handover of the portal to the state government.
Political will sorely lacking
Notwithstanding successes, the inadequate commitment from state governments hinder progress, Tolulope notes. Mr Agunloye added how ignorance of the implications of an open government from state actors aggravated things too. He cited an example of a state commissioner who ill advised the governor not to send a letter of intent because he believes that would warrant the state to sign the anti corruption bill.
The story is the same for the Interactive Initiative for Social Impact whose efforts to liberate socio-economic data for informed policy making and civic solutions remain stifled. So far, The Interactive has reached out with Bauchi, Enugu, Ekiti and Oyo states. But the little knowledge about the need for open data for subnational development remains the first huddle to cross.
Financial Statements, NOT Full Audit Report
While establishing open government data was one side of the coin, details of these audit reports are tails. In a chat with Segun Elemo, the Executive Director of PLSI, he noted that, though several states have a facsimile of audit transparency, “what you find uploaded are audited financial statements as against a full audit report”.
For him, there is currently no incentive to conduct a full audit whether financial, compliance or even performance audit. The World Bank initiative, SFTAS, which would have incentivised the commitment of state governments, is not explicit about the content of the financial statement. Elemo said this is because the DLIs do not demand this as a target. This is ironic because the first objective of the operational SFTAS document for the country is for states to “publish audited financial statements within 6 months of financial year end.”
Mr Elemo added how the legal vacuum stifles effective audit processes in states. He, however, expressed optimism about the updated audit law recently passed in Kogi and Kano states.
To support the process, PLSI working with state CSOs has started an engagement with subnational governments in Kaduna, Kogi, Oyo; and will extend the support to more states in the coming year.