By Our Correspondent
The Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has been vindicated by a recent United States Department of State report which raised concerns over fiscal transparency in Nigeria, according to his media office.
Paul Ibe, Atiku’s media aide, stated this in a post on his X platform on Thursday, citing the US report’s assessment of the Nigerian government’s budgetary and fiscal disclosure practices.
The report criticised the Federal Government for failing to provide timely and comprehensive information on its revenues and expenditures, while also raising concerns about discrepancies between approved budget figures and actual revenue and spending during implementation.
Atiku, a former Vice President, has repeatedly accused the administration of President Bola Tinubu of failing to meet acceptable standards of fiscal transparency, accountability and public disclosure.
According to the US report, the government made its enacted budget and end-of-year report widely accessible to the public, including online, but failed to publish its executive budget proposal within a reasonable period.
The report further stated that the budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of the government’s revenues and expenditures or adequately break down expenditures supporting executive offices.
It also observed that actual revenues and expenditures did not reasonably correspond with those contained in the enacted budget.
The report raised additional concerns about the Office of the Auditor-General, stating that it did not meet international standards of independence and had not published substantive reports.
According to the assessment, the Nigerian government did not meet the minimum requirements for fiscal transparency during the period under review, particularly regarding timely, detailed and publicly accessible information on government revenues and expenditures.
Reacting to the report, Atiku said the findings reinforced concerns he had consistently raised about the management of public resources under the Tinubu administration.
“This report confirms what we have been saying: that Nigerians deserve to know where every kobo is coming from and where it is being spent. They are our resources and not the resources of President Bola Tinubu and his family and friends,” he said.
Atiku had also argued that inadequate fiscal disclosure could undermine efforts to attract investment, combat corruption and restore public confidence in government.
“Transparency is not a slogan. It is the foundation of good governance,” he said in one of his previous interventions on fiscal accountability.
The former Vice President stressed that fiscal transparency remained an important consideration for investors, donor agencies and international credit rating institutions.
He said detailed and timely disclosure of revenues from oil, taxation and borrowing, as well as expenditure records, was particularly important at a time of rising debt and inflation.
Atiku said greater transparency in the management of public finances would help restore confidence in Nigeria’s economy and strengthen the country’s ability to attract foreign investment and access multilateral support for infrastructure and social programmes.
The Atiku Media Office said the former Vice President would continue to advocate greater accountability and transparency in the management of Nigeria’s public resources.
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