allAfrica.com: Nigeria: NASS And Result-Based Oversight Functions (2) (Page 1 of 1)

To gather this information, the National Assembly needs to institute a periodic reporting system based on monthly or quarterly time periods for these implementing agencies to report progress in achievement of their goals.

These monthly or quarterly reports may be sent in electronically or hand delivered to the relevant committees detailing amounts received for past month and activities conducted. Simple as it may sound, this could go along way in avoiding a recurrence of ministries telling the National Assembly at the end of the year that they never received funding for over six months or discoveries of non-implementation of any projects by the ministry. These reports will act as early warning systems and also facilitate measuring trends to influence future proposals.

The National Assembly cannot afford to wait till the end of the year to constitute a probe panel to deal with belated news. Despite our love for the sensationalism of headlines indicting all manner of individuals, a real-time account of activities within the ministries is paramount for the nation to achieve set developmental goals.

Indicators of progress towards achievement of these goals need to be set so that all stakeholders can clearly and easily assess if an implementing agency is making any progress so as to detect and avoid failure. The indicators should be clearly observable or measurable characteristics that show or indicate when a specific intended result is being achieved. These performance indicators should be attributable to the implementing agency's efforts.

It is also time for National Assembly to commission a Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS). This survey, pioneered in Uganda in 1996, compares past budgetary allocations with actual spending. It involves following the money to where it is actually spent, comparing budgetary allocations with records of transfers and receipts at each level of government. The data compiled by a well conducted PETS will show how much of the funds intended for service providers actually reach the intended beneficiaries. It will also indicate at what level any leakage or diversion takes place and will provide comparable statistics for further decisions.

This survey may be commissioned by various committees of the House and Senate to their line ministries, departments and agencies (MDA's) or as a wholesale activity by the National Assembly. A PETS would be very useful as a device for locating and quantifying bureaucratic capture, leakage of funds, and problem in the deployment of in-kind resources, such as staff, textbooks and drugs. It could also be used to evaluate impediments to reverse the flow of information to account for actual expenditures.

Strong executive opposition to the notion of a PETS is to be expected. Therefore, before the Supreme Court clarifies all these legal lacunas, the National Assembly can rely on the constitutionally provided, opposition chaired; Public Accounts Committees of both houses which should be encouraged to perform their duties and ensure receipt of the auditor general's report in a timely manner. This could in the short to medium term suffice as the legislature develops and becomes more assertive.

During the last administration, the National Assembly attempted to set up an independent budget office that would serve both houses of the legislature with technical, non-partisan and timely analysis of executive budget proposals. The recent budget impasse with the President further raises the enormity of importance of this office.

The National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO) Bill was passed during the last legislative session but not assented to by the President. The legislature should make haste to re-initiate and pass this vital bill into law so as to greatly improve its budgeting and oversight capacity. With the loss of a significant number of legislators each election year and frequent re-organisation of committee clerks, it is essential for the National Assembly to have an office of career technocrats, adept at economic analysis and professional enough to rival the impressive executive budget office. This office should, ideally, be housed outside the National Assembly so as to insulate it from the intense political atmosphere.

Only by the establishment of this office can the legislature avoid embarrassing budget face-offs where they are made to look and feel like an inferior bunch whose amendments to budget proposals are not backed by facts but rather a penchant for kick-backs and unsustainable constituency projects. The establishment of the NABRO would free the National Assembly of many of the capacity issues the executive itself faced before the creation of the budget office of the Ministry of Finance.

The legislature should also reach across the divide and collaborate with civil society Organisations. CSO's, local and international, can provide a wealth of information to the legislature and greatly assist in the legislature's oversight of public expenditure. By gathering data at the local levels, linking up with whistle blowers within the executive and providing sectoral expertise, CSO's can be valuable allies. It is commendable that the National Assembly has established a liaison office for the civil society. The members should use this hub to build a network of budget monitors who can go out in the field and report project progress as they see it without the manipulation of implementing agencies with prior knowledge of National Assembly members themselves coming.

Clearly, to undertake all these programs, the committees of the National Assembly need adequate funding. A situation whereby committees of the National Assembly receive less than two million naira quarterly for oversight of agencies implementing billions of naira worth of projects has the potential of putting the entire process and the nation's development at risk. A situation whereby ministries have to pay for legislators' training makes whatever oversight activity initiated after such training dead-on-arrival.

The Senate president and the speaker have made several pronouncements on the need for the legislature to improve its oversight capacity and activity and have mentioned many of the issues raised here. They must, however, take it upon themselves to lead this process and put their money where their mouth is by supporting their various committees to carry out these functions professionally. Today, we have a president who has given the National Assembly a free hand to perform all its constitutional responsibilities. Today is the day for the National Assembly to lift us all out of this dire straits by adhering to result based oversight.

Muhammad Sani is an Abuja-based economist

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