Thread by @BudgITng

PRESS STATEMENT

BudgIT and CISLAC applaud @NigeriaGov as payments made to personal accounts on the #OpenTreasury Portal reduce by 94% from N5.8bn to N308m.

Payments without description have also reduced by 50.9% from N794m to N389m.

This is commendable!

THREAD #AskQuestions

On December 9, 2019, @nigeriagov launched the #OpenTreasury Portal to increase transparency and accountability in government spending. #AskQuestions

In June 2020, BudgIT released a detailed report titled. “OpenTreasury.gov.ng: Nigeria’s Spending Platform: Review, Gaps & Recommendations”, in which it analysed data uploaded on the portal from September 2018 to May 2020. #AskQuestions

The report observed that between January and June 2019, over 2,900 payments were made into personal accounts while over 5000 payments worth N278bn did not have any description on the "Purpose of the payment" #AskQuestions

Subsequently, letters were sent to the OAGF on the problems and gaps identified by BudgIT on the platform. #AskQuestions

On August 6 2020, @NigeriaGov set up the Transparency Portal and Quality Assurance and Compliance Committee to review these gaps and resolve the issues. #AskQuestions

@BudgITng and @cislacnigeria were nominated as members of the Committee. This Committee also includes other MDAs, @ICPC_PE and @officialEFCC. The two organisations' participation is at no cost to @nigeriagov #AskQuestions

Consequently, both BudgIT and CISLAC noticed some progress regarding the issues raised on the OpenTreasury portal since the committee was set up by @NigeriaGov #AskQuestions

Since the committee's intervention, payments without description have reduced by 50.98% from N794,954,335.07 in about 28 transactions in August 2020 to N389,718,618.47 with 24 transactions in January 2021. #AskQuestions

Likewise, payments to personal accounts which amounted to N2,962,536,395.77 with 190 Occurrences in August 2020 rose by 98.40% to N5,877,687,578.87 with 336 occurrences in December 2020. #AskQuestions

However, these payments have reduced by 94.75% from December 2020 to N308,174,806.84 with 15 occurrences in January 2021.

In October 2020, a list of 44 transactions from 16 MDAs was handed over to the @ICPC_PE representative for further investigation for non-compliance.

However, despite @ICPC_PE's intervention, we observed some consistent trends emerging from @MNDA_Ng & @FMHDSD with both having the largest share of defaulters in the last quarter of 2020. #AskQuestions

Whilst speaking about this, @BudgITng's Principal Lead, @GabsynGreat reiterated the importance of unveiling those sanctioned to the public, as this will serve as a deterrent to other civil servants and public office holders to be more accountable in the use of public funds.

He further noted that while the platform is innovative and commendable, much work is still needed to achieve its goal of enabling public transparency and accountability.

A link to the initial report by BudgIT - bit.ly/open-treasury

(Full press statement above)