The Fiscal Governance and Institutions Project (FGIP), a collaborative program between the Federal Government and the World Bank will strengthen revenue management and accountability in the use of public funds.
The Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF), Mr. Anthony Ayine, disclosed this during courtesy visits to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Abuja.
In a statement, Ayine said that the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAuGF) have started interfacing with key stakeholders to share experiences and come up with a position that will strengthen revenue management, as well as promote transparency and accountability in the use of public funds.
He said the Fiscal Governance and Institutions Project (FGIP), will see his office conduct Revenue Assurance Audit and IT Audit on the FIRS and NCS, explaining that the project’s activities and priorities will be to strengthen revenue management collection and accounting processes, in addition to strengthening controls and accountability in the use of public funds.
According to him, “Our engagement here is essentially to ensure that the collection of revenue is lawfully made. We will also verify that procedures and checks are in place and properly applied.
“We will work to ascertain that accounts are duly kept and appropriate remittances are made to the authorized accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“We will verify and evaluate the efficiency of internal controls and accounting systems and also review where applicable, areas where reforms have been made.
“The essence of the exercise is to improve the revenue of government so as to reduce the heavy financial burden of borrowing on the country.”
The FGIP was approved by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors on June 27, 2018 and has four key components, namely: strengthening revenue management, strengthening controls, transparency and accountability in the use of public funds, strengthening economic and fiscal statistics and implementation support.
The OAuGF is one of five strategic institutions tasked to implement the project. The others are the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, the National Bureau of Statistics and the Bureau of Public Procurement.
