Only seven states have fiscal responsibility law – Commission
Only seven states in the country currently have the fiscal responsibility law, Victor Muruako, the Secretary/Acting Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, has said.
Muruako, who stated this at a News Agency of Nigeria Forum on Wednesday in Abuja, identified some of the states as Kebbi, Kwara, Taraba and Ekiti.
According to him, the states have gone ahead to set up fiscal responsibility commissions to enforce the law in their respective domains.
He said that the FRC was interfacing with the state commissions, adding that a workshop would be organised for them in the first quarter of 2014 to build their capacities.
The FRC boss identified another group of nine states where the law had been passed by the Houses of Assembly and signed into law but the commission had yet to be set up.
Muruako said: “Another batch, made up of about nine states, they have passed the law, their governors have assented to the law but they are yet to set up the commission and to make the commission to start working.
“Then the question is: why pass the law if you don’t mean to set it up?
“Maybe you want to set it up on the eve of your departure as a governor.
“Why don’t you set it up and live by example?
“Why wait to sign into law, maybe a month or two or three when you would be leaving, you now set up the commission so that the commission would regulate the incoming administration?
“Posterity will definitely look at you on the bright side if you have the courage to do what is right in setting up the commission and also ensure they are empowered to discharge their mandate under the various laws.”
Muruako said that in some other states, the fiscal responsibility bills have been passed by the Houses of Assembly but the governors have refused to assent to them.
The last group, he added, comprises states where no attempt has been made either by the executive or legislative arm of government to have a fiscal responsibility law.
He said: “Another group of states, their various state Houses of Assembly have passed the law, but the governors, let me not say they have refused, they are yet to assent to the law.
“Some states have completely refused to even moot it.
“And that is very unfortunate.”
NAN reports that a fiscal responsibility regime came into force at the federal level following the signing into law of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 by late President Musa Yar’Adua.
The law provides for prudent management of the nation’s resources through greater accountability and transparency in fiscal operations, among other provisions.
It established the Fiscal Responsibility Commission charged with the monitoring and enforcement of the Act to promote the country’s economic objectives.
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