For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 10, 2004
G8/Nigeria Partnership
Compact to Promote Transparency and Combat Corruption: a New Partnership Between the G8 and Nigeria
Nigeria and the members of the G8 announce today their intention to
cooperate in a "Compact to Promote Transparency and Combat Corruption."
Nigeria and the G8 share the view that corruption is a threat to
democratic institutions, economic development and to the integrity of
the international system of trade and investment. Nigeria and the
members of the G8 recognize that promoting transparency and integrity
and fighting corruption require commitment and action on all sides.
Outlined below are the intentions and policy commitments of the G8 and
Nigeria as they pursue cooperation through the Compact in a spirit of
partnership and mutual respect.
Statement of the Government of Nigeria
The Government of Nigeria wishes to commit to partnership and
cooperation with the G8 in the continuing implementation of the
comprehensive national anti-corruption strategy as a pivotal step for
accelerating the rebuilding of our National Integrity Systems. The
anti-corruption strategy is situated within the framework of a whole
set of structural reforms (detailed measures of which are available on
the website - www.fmf.gov.ng) designed to lay
a foundation for sustained economic growth and development for the
country. These reforms are anchored around: (a)
Maintenance of Macro Economic Stability; (b) Public
Expenditure/Budget Reforms and Public Revenue Reforms; (c) Public
Sector/Reforms (d) Accelerated Privatization and Liberalization
(e) Anti-corruption, Transparency and Accountability Reforms.
OUR POLICY COMMITMENTS
We have in response to the malignance of corruption to our
development designed and are currently implementing a broad and
systemic anti-corruption strategy as a flagship of our economic,
political and social reforms. The anti-corruption program of the
Government includes concrete measures -- preventive as well as punitive
-- that address issues of accountability, transparency and efficiency
by fundamentally tackling the problems of our institutional, economic,
political and social structures.
The range of the anti-corruption, transparency and good governance
programs of our Government includes budgetary and fiscal transparency,
procurement reforms, strengthening anti-corruption and economic crimes
institutions for effective law enforcement and sanction of corruption
and money laundering, privatisation transparency, public
sector/bureaucratic reforms, judicial and justice sector reforms,
tracing, freezing and recovery of corruption proceeds and general
re-orientation of the public.
More specifically, the following underpin the priority efforts of
our Government to enthrone transparency, accountability, efficiency and
effectiveness in governance of both public financial resources and
governance of the political and social infrastructure of our country:
BUDGET AND FISCAL TRANSPARENCY:
The Budget formulation process, presentation, consultation,
implementation and monitoring is being done with clear rules, roles and
responsibilities.
(1) Beginning with the 2004 budget, a Fiscal Strategy Paper
laying out the broad directions and priorities of the budget is first
discussed with the Executive and then the Legislature. It is then
shared with stakeholders groups among the public to catalyze public
debates on the policy objectives, macroeconomic framework and the
parameters on which the budget is based;
(2) Following the crafting and passage of the Budget, the
public is provided with full information on the past, current and
projected fiscal activity of government and the presentation is done in
a way that facilitates independent analysis and enhances demands for
accountability;
(3) To make the budget more accessible to the public and
demystify it, a publication on "Understanding the ABCs of the Budget"
has commenced. It is to be followed by a more detailed, but still
basic, citizen's guide to the budget. Both the ABCs of the budget and
the budget document itself are available on the Ministry of Finance Web
site- www.fmf.gov.ng;
(4) Publication of monthly revenue allocations to all three
tiers of government (Federal, State and Local) began in January 2004.
The data is available on the Ministry's web site and monthly in local
newspapers after the Federation Account meetings. Publication of
monthly warrants showing allocation to Federal Ministries and Agencies
for recurrent costs, and quarterly warrants showing allocations for
capital costs has also begun. The data is available on both the
Ministry as well as the Budget Office websites-www.budgetoffice.gov.ng
;
(5) Very rudimentary quantitative and qualitative performance
indicators have been developed by major spending ministries and
agencies to link allocations in the budget to results on the ground.
These performance indicators for Budget 2004 can be found in the
ministry's website;
(6) Quarterly budget performance monitoring, mid year review
and presentation of performance or implementation status to the
Legislature and the public have been introduced;
(7) Transparent management of additional petroleum receipts
over and above budgeted price. Petroleum receipts over the budget
benchmark price of $25 a barrel are held in an "excess crude account"
at the Central Bank for purposes of saving and managing oil price
volatility and its impact on the economy. The balance on petroleum
proceeds in this account is shared with the public;
(8) Procedures for the execution and monitoring of approved
expenditure have been harmonized and strengthened through the
establishment of the Cash Management Committee headed by the Minister
of Finance with membership drawn from the Budget Office, the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), FIRS, Accountant-General,
Central Bank and the Procurement Regulatory Office;
(9) The Revenue Framework is being redesigned to provide
clearer details of revenues collected by all revenue-collecting
agencies in a reporting format that is clear and concise;
(10) The inauguration of a coalition group of civil society and
private sector representatives to independently monitor program
implementation under the Economic Reform program;
(11) A program for capacity enhancement of the Office of the
Auditor-General of the Federation for more effective synergy with the
Public Accountability Committee of the Senate;
(12) A program of "Running Operational Reviews" of major
government spending activities by the Ministry of Finance to ascertain
operational and financial efficiency and effectiveness of major
spending.
PUBLIC PROCUREMENT LEGISLATION, POLICY AND
ADMINISTRATION
To ensure good use of financial resources and enhance competition,
the GON has introduced stringent and enforced guidelines for public
contracting.
(1) The Procedure for the award of contracts has been
redesigned to conform to the standards of internationally competitive
bid, with emphasis on openness, competition and value for money under
the transitional Due Process Regime; a reform effort that has already
resulted in the savings of $800 million dollars in prevented
overpricing of federal contracts. Through the Due Process
certification process which is a mandatory requirement for all public
treasury funded projects, we now cancel all contracts that are poorly
packaged and non-compliant with internationally acceptable standards of
a competitive process and value-for-money.
(2) Attract new domestic and foreign entrants into the market
for public works, goods and services by continuing to adhere to newly
established standards of openness and competition and ultimately
achieve costs of contracts that are comparable with international
practice;
(3) The publication of Federal Procurement Journal available
nationwide and containing notices of procurement opportunities and the
information on cost and winners of public contracts commences in August
2004;
(4) A bill for the establishment of a Federal Public
Procurement Regulatory Agency is being concluded for submission to the
Legislature to set out the process for contract awards, administration
and redress/dispute resolution.
EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY TRANSPARENCY INITIATIVE
(1) A standing multi-stakeholders group of twenty- seven drawn
from the private sector, civil society and public sector has been set
up to implement transparency of revenue from oil, gas and solid
minerals;
(2) The result of independent financial and technical audits of
revenue and costs reported by the government to have been
received/incurred from/by the oil sector, and payments to have been
made to the government or costs incurred as reported by the oil sector,
shall with effect from September 2004 become a quarterly revenue/costs
reporting instrument;
(3) Technical capacity and institution and human resource
re-organization in the principal oil and gas cost/revenue regulating or
collecting agencies, including the Inland Revenue Service and the
Office of the Accountant General of the Federation;
(4) Back up the requirement for quarterly revenue reporting
with relevant piece of Legislation within the next twelve months;
(5) Establishment of an Oil and Gas Accounts Unit in Federal
Ministry of Finance for purposes of improved modeling/forward
accounting of expenditures and revenues in the Oil and Gas sectors.
Provide additional back up to the Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative (EITI).
ANTI-CORRUPTION INSTITUTIONS BUILD-UP
Cognizant of the importance of institutions that enforce
anti-corruption laws to an effective anti-corruption strategy, the GON
has strengthened a number of the core institutions statutorily
empowered to investigate, prosecute and sanction corruption.
(1) Our independent anti-corruption agency known as ICPC is
being strengthened through legislative amendment, technical and human
capacity building and appropriate funding to enhance its capacity for
the sanction of corrupt conduct;
(2) The Code of Conduct Bureau is being strengthened to monitor
effectively the asset declaration and ethical conduct of public
officials, legislators and judges;
(3) The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission recently
established to enforce economic crimes laws and punish criminals has
commenced investigation and prosecution of over two hundred economic
criminals, especially the fraudsters perpetrating international scams.
Results: $300 million equivalent recovered, $52 million to the
Treasury. Continued efforts to track, trace and recover looted funds.
Communications campaign on 419 internally and very soon externally.
Anti-money laundering legislation approved.
(4) The EFCC plans by August 2004 to conclude action to
establish a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to deepen its capacity
for monitoring and enforcing laws against money laundering and other
economic crimes;
(5) A Cyber-Crime Commission has been set up to stem the tide
of Internet and ICT related crimes emanating from Nigeria;
(6) An integrated legal and police reform strategy that is
linked to the broader institutional strategy for effective sanction of
corruption has become a catalyst for on-going judicial reform efforts
by the Judiciary, a separate arm of government.
PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM
(1) The strengthening of the Management information system and
public sector accounting capacity;
(2) Payroll computerization has begun to curb incidents of
"Ghost Workers" that caused inflated corruption-induced wage bills;
(3) Monetization of benefits in kind has began to curb the
abuse of open ended privileges and entitlements of public officials
that distorted the recurrent-to-capital expenditure ratio;
(4) The Legislation-backed Contributory pension scheme recently
established aims to build confidence in the public work force of a more
secure future and enhance productivity and curb economic security
driven corruption.
(5) National Health Care Insurance System.
(6) Selection of several key pilot ministries for the
rightsizing of the public service by attracting new core competencies
in policy articulation and implementation and redeployment of excess
un-needed skills to private enterprise.
(7) Institute a competency driven and incentive/sanction-based
procedure for hiring, promotion, training, rotating and firing public
officials to create a new public sector culture.
JOINT ACTIONS WITH G8 PARTNERS
We invite the G8 to work with us in further broadening and
deepening these various programs already under implementation through a
collaborative process of identifying any gaps that may exist in our
Strategy. The map of our various programs detailing objectives,
responsibility for action, expected impact, timelines and possible
partners clearly elaborates the areas of priority for our national
integrity renewal.
We wish to reiterate our unreserved commitment to continuing to
pursue the transparency program of our Government, as the results have
already began to show.
We urge our G8 Partners to match our commitment to the transparency
program so that together, we can accelerate the pace at which our
country rebuilds its national integrity and plays the pivotal role that
it is positioned to play both in Africa and the rest of the world.
Statement of the G8 Governments
General Statement of Policy Commitments
For their part, G8 countries committed at Evian and Sea Island to
act together to fight corruption and increase transparency. At Sea
Island, the G8 agreed to pursue specific actions to follow up their
Evian commitments. As set forth in more detail in their Declarations
in Evian and Sea Island, the G8 intend to: - Become parties to
the UN Convention Against Corruption and call for rapid signature and
completion of all necessary steps to ratify and implement the
Convention, and support the convening in Vienna of a multilateral
"Friends of the Convention" process for promoting active and effective
implementation.
- Translate the words of the UN Convention into
effective actions and assist third countries, particularly developing
countries, in accomplishing the objectives of the Convention.
- Implement a new G8 partnership to detect, recover and return
illicitly acquired proceeds of corruption.
- Put in place new
methods to coordinate G8 asset recovery actions, including by:
- Establishing G8 accelerated response teams
- Enhancing G8
asset recovery case coordination; and
- Holding G8 asset
recovery workshops.
- Adopting rules and measures or creating
best practices to track and recover assets in corruption
cases.
- Seek in accordance with national laws to deny
safe haven to public officials guilty of corruption, by denying them
entry, when appropriate, and by using extradition and mutual legal
assistance laws and mechanisms more effectively.
- Work with the
international financial institutions (IFIs) and UN agencies to
encourage anti-corruption and transparency actions by developing
countries. The G8 intend to:
- Encourage countries to meet the
high disclosure and transparency standards set by the IFIs.
- Support World Bank and related programs to help developing
countries achieve accountability in public finance and expenditure and
procurement.
- Seek agreement to disclose country assistance
strategies, performance evaluations and reports on country budget
procedures from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and
regional development banks.
- Invite developing countries to
prepare anti-corruption action plans to implement their commitments in
regional and international conventions.
- Adhere
rigorously to an updated peer review schedule for the OECD Anti-Bribery
Convention and honor our pledges to serve as lead examiners to monitor
our enforcement of anti-bribery laws. Send prosecutors and other law
enforcement officials to participate in peer reviews.
- Encourage efforts of our private sectors to develop and implement
corporate compliance programs to promote adherence to laws that
criminalize the bribery of foreign public officials.
- Implement
the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) revised 40 recommendations and
promote implementation of the UN Transnational Organized Crime
Convention (TOC).
- Work towards including in G8 regional and
bilateral trade agreements provisions requiring transparency in
government procurement and the awarding of concessions, as well as
provisions on trade facilitation.
Proposed Actions to Launch a Nigeria Transparency
Compact
A number of G8 countries are prepared to work to find ways to
support the efforts of Nigeria to enhance transparency, use public
resources wisely and fight corruption. Participating G8 countries
intend to join in a voluntary and cooperative partnership with Nigeria
to help improve transparency in the specific areas identified as
national priorities by the Government of Nigeria. The future work plan
for the transparency compact is expected to focus on efforts to promote
transparency and prevent corruption in the following areas:
- Public budgets and financial management, including revenues and
expenditures;
- Government procurement; and
- Letting of
public concessions.
These are the key channels for public resource management and use.
Participating G8 countries intend to work in consultation with the
Government of Nigeria to consider, within their budgetary
possibilities, country-specific technical assistance, political support
and policy guidance in areas where Nigeria identifies a need for
capacity building to enhance transparency. G8 partners may help to
support efforts by the Nigerian authorities to make information
available to the public, to develop appropriate rules and regulations
and to build support for pro-transparency reform among domestic
constituencies. Assistance from participating G8 partners may include
stepped-up coordination with the international financial institutions
to ensure that new assistance complements existing and future
transparency work with Nigeria in those institutions.
Next Steps
Representatives of the Government of Nigeria and of participating
G8 countries intend to meet soon to carry the compact forward to the
next operational stage. The participating partner countries intend to
work together to develop a technical plan of action. The technical
plans would be based upon Nigeria's stated priorities to build on its
current efforts and actions in the realm of transparency and public
financial management and accountability.
Participating G8 countries and the Government of Nigeria further
intend to adopt a procedure to measure and evaluate progress as the
pilot compact moves forward.
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