By Providence Ayanfeoluwa
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN, has called on the World Bank to make ICAN-Accountability Index AI ranking as indicator for granting loans to Federal and State Governments in Nigeria.
The ICAN index is a Public Finance Management, PFM, tool initiated to ensure that the three tiers of government embrace best practices in PFM.
A statement made available to Vanguard, signed by Assistant Director, Corporate Communications, Mrs. Olubunmi Owolabi, the President of ICAN, Dr. Innocent Okwuosa, said this in Abuja when he paid a courtesy call on the Country Director of the World Bank, Mr. Chubham Chaudhuri.
Okwuosa who was received by the Bank’s senior financial analyst, Mr. Akin Akinyele, commended the entities for the positive progress in the amount of financial information provided, disclosing that 53 percent of the information required for assessment was provided across the various levels of government in 2021 on the average; 50 percent in 2020 when compared to only 35 percent and 28 percent in 2019 and 2018 respectively.
While admonishing stakeholders at all levels of governments to cooperate with ICAN-AI assessors that visit Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDA’s to collate relevant data, in addition to those sourced online, he pointed out that the ICAN-AI has been acknowledged as having wider scope and better suited for Nigeria than similar initiatives like the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability, PEFA and the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability, SFTAS frameworks due to its scope captured in five pillars, 25 indicators and 70 dimensions which is scaled across the three tiers of government.
He stated: “Corruption, unaccountability and poor public financial management are systemic within the Nigerian economic system. The UN Sustainable Development Goals cannot be achieved under this socio-economic environment. Therefore, ICAN in its public interest mandate is positioned to play a vital role in the improvement of public sector financial management and accountability in Nigeria.”
Source: Vanguard