ByABUBAKAR ALIYU MOHAMMED

Revived Customs’ conference and its positive dimension

THE Nigeria Customs Service has been
exploring all avenues in making the Ni
gerian public and the world to be aware of their functions. The importance of their activities to the national development cannot be over emphasized. The present management leadership under the amiable leadership of Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde (CFR) sat and initiated a strategy towards this agenda. Hence, this led in reviving the annual Nigeria Customs Service conference. Because, the last time this conference was held was in the year 2007 in Sokoto state.
The year 2012 will be remembered as the revived annual conference took place in the ancient city of Katsina, capital of Katsina state. Interestingly, the host state is the state of origin of the present Comptroller General Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde (CFR). The conference was held on the 26th of November 2012 to the 29th of November 2012 respectively. The venue of the conference was the ultra­modern auditorium of the Umaru Yar’adua University, Katsina. This auditorium can accommodate more than 5000 dignitaries instantly, with all the modern technological advancement gadgets. Especially, with the caliber of important personalities that are to grace the occasion, this led in choosing the venue of the event.
As usual Katsina state will be in history as for a very long time to come, because of the- unprecedented personalities & crowd that graced the conference. Katsina city came to a standstill with. the caliber of important personalities’ both mighty and the low. His Excellency, Vice President Alhaji Mohammed Namadi Sambo represented President Goodluck Jonathan. Former Presidents Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Former, Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubaker ( a former senior custom officer). His Excellency, the Host Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Shehu Shema.
Sultan of Sokoto His Eminence Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, Oni of Ife, Deji of Akure, Emir of katsina & Daura and other prominent traditional rulers across Nigeria and other neighbouring countries. Right Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Speaker House of Representatives and National Assembly members. Minister of State Finance Alhaji Lawal Ngama, and other members of the Federal Executive Council. The Director Generals of customs of Benin & Niger republic are all in attendance. Others are heads of Nigerian immigration service, Federal Inland Revenue Service, the military hierarchy etc. also, there are stakeholders in the custom, maritime sector and agents as well as ordinary Nigerians.
This year’s conference theme was” Border’s Divide: Customs Connect. “The conference theme’ is significant in meaning as it goes with the present challenges & realities as it affects the Nigerian custom service in its entirety. The smuggling rate at our borders is so alarming, so the customs ‘Service is the solution. In other words, majority of the challenges facing the: Nigerian customs service is in our territorial borders. With all the necessary support & co-operation from the government in terms of adequate provision of logistics, all the lost hope can be restored by the Nigerian customs. Therefore, this theme has a very wider dimension, that’s why the initiators have wisdom & foresight for the Para­military agency.
One major significant of this revived conference has been described as a reunion experience. This is whereby the combination of the present leadership of the Para-military agency and former top echelon has added glamour to the weeklong event. This is because; a lot of ideas, knowledge and experience were exchanged for the rapid transformation of the customs service. This will go a long way in making the agency live up to their functional responsibility efficiently. These include effective tackling of smuggling proliferation, mechanism in the improvement of revenue generation and also improve the of staff welfare package etc. This has been attested to with the presence of former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar alongside former top brass of the Nigerian customs service.
The speeches and presentations during this year’s conference by the important dignitaries are something worthy of commendation and challenges to the Nigerian customs service. President Goodluck Jonathan ably represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo said” I must commend the comptroller general and the entire customs service for the clear improvement that from 30 billion Naira monthly revenue, we are today at about 100 billion Naira and the CG has confident.ly informed me that very soon it will increase to 150 billion Naira per month”. He further states that” in line with our administration is zero tolerance for corruption the customs service must constantly examine itself by weeding out corrupt men and officers whose activities tarnish the image of the service. You must faithfully abide by the principles of good governance which encapsulates transparency and integrity. “
The above speech of Mr. President, read by Vice President Namadi Sambo, is heart touching to the entire agency. It focused on two major perspectives, first by commending the agency in attaining some greater height in revenue generation as well as seek for the future once more. This shows the CG and his team is doing a job well done to the entire nation, as well as a promise to do more. Secondly, the challenge on the authorities is to flush out the bad eggs within their system in order to have an efficient workforce. This will emphatically, provide maximum productivity from the leadership down to the ladder in service delivery to the nation. The president attached a lot of importance to the Para-military agency, because of their relevance to national development. This is also enumerated he participated in every functions and events, unless his engagements supersede that of the Nigerian custom. Don’t forget before he was also one of them (custom officer), that’s why he provides them with all the urgent and necessary finance & logistics.
The Speaker federal house of representatives, Rt. Hon. Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal in his speech states that we will make you more effective so that you can work professionally. We will put all our best to see that you have the kind of laws you need to make you more effective”. This claim has been manifested…with an act of the Nigerian customs service before the national assembly, receiving positive attention from the lawmakers. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, in his speech all actions and inactions which has led the public to associate the service with corruption must be addressed”. His speech is not surprising as a former senior custom officer. The lingering challenge of the agency must be adequately controlled in having an effect.ive and efficient customs serviCe that every Nigerian will be proud of. But really shows how the agency has been making a positive impact under Abdullahi Dikko Inde, and urged them to maintain and sustain the tempo.
While the convener of the conference, the 29th comptroller general of the Nigerian cus!oms service Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko hide (CFR) make a remarkable welcome address the bold decision by government to return to the service, its statutory responsibilities, is a function of the confidence Mr. President has both in the leadership and capabilities of the service”. This epoch speech Make emphasis on what they have done, what they are presently doing and what they are aspiring to do in near future. This are all aimed in making the Nigerian customs service a leader in Nigeria’s economy and beyond, especially in this challenging period of our ailing economy. The comptroller general promise a new result oriented service, with new initiatives & policies that will improve more revenue generation, check smuggling menace & enhance international trade.
The annual conference has become also a platform not only for interaction, but with the major partners of the Nigerian customs service. The agency as a body with main mandate of revenue generation makes their functions much easier, with good collaboration and partnership with other agencies. The agencies are both in the public sector and the private sector respectively. The Nigerian customs service recognized their presence and importance during such an august gathering in Katsina. Because the technical session of the conference involves such agencies such as NAFDAC, SON, Nigerian Immigration Service, custom clearing agents, maritime experts etc. Others include the Armed Forces, Police, State Security Service, Nigerian Security & Civil Defence Corp all contributed in their specific in relation to customs functions. Because in today’s global village, reality has shown no organization is an island of its own.
All inputs made during the conference are geared toward a well defined custom agency that can stand the test of time in this millennium & beyond. The conference has become an avenue of learning, teaching and experiences between all the stakeholders involved in the annual event. As this conference has x-rayed the impacts of the agency, shortcomings and solutions proffered. This conference will also go a long way in finding a lasting solution hampering the smooth operation and conduct of the Nigerian customs service.
The Nigeria customs service has been commended from far and near, especially the Comptroller General Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde with the revival of the annual conference. With the comptroller general determination, it will continue to be an annual event henceforth. It will become an umbrella for an immediate measuring of the full activities of the Nigerian custom service. This will also serve as inter­me diary platform in surveying the prospects and utilizing its full potentials for the overall interest of the nation.
The comptroller general has recorded yet another milestone in his focus, foresight and transparent leadership with this successful hosting. As the year winds up, the expectation in every lips of Nigerians are the declaration to be made by the comptroller general himself in total revenue he generated to the nation. This revived custom annual conference positive impact will be definitely felt by all un-sundry Nigerians. Another successful result oriented year, from no one’ but Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde, our amiable comptroller general of the century and beyond. Thank you, Mr. Comptroller General of the Nigerian people.

BYChris  Okewulonu

A budget is only as effective as its implementation. It is in consideration of this that Nigeria’s rule-based fiscal management regimen – particularly as elaborated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007 – contains guidelines aimed at helping our macroeconomic managers to align their activities to the intentions of the budget de-signers.
The Prudence Assurance Process
In the first place, the FRA stipulates that in advance of a financial year, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation should draw up the year’s annual cash plan setting out the projected monthly cash flows, which would be revised periodically to reflect the actual cash flows. To further support good im-plementation practices and improve achievement of budget targets, the FRA man-dates the Minister of Finance to prepare and publish – within 30 days of the enact-ment of the Appropriations Act – a disbursement schedule derived from the annual cash plan for the purposes of implementing the Appropriations Act.
A corollary of this is that early in the financial year (or, ideally, before the com-mencement of the year), each spending institution has a dashboard showing the funds that are planned to be disbursed to it at scheduled periods through the year. This predictability eliminates the knee-jerk approach to managing reve-nue/expenditure. It also enables institutions to work more deliberately and, one dares say, more prudently, towards the achievement of their budget targets.
Hamstringing the culprits of fiscal imprudence
Historically, the culprits-in-chief of imprudent implementation have centered around these notorious four:
(i) Virement – a situation in which money assigned in the budget is applied to ends other than those specified.
(ii) The budget may be so poorly planned that it is hardly implementable in the first place;
(iii) Cash not being released on time, or not released at all;
(iv) Lack of capacity/intention on the part of MDAs to expend according to the rule and earn good value-for-money;
Virement
Because a vired expenditure is an alteration to the originally well thought through plan, it upsets both the plan and its inbuilt metrics. It challenges the integrity of the PRUDENCE ASSURANCE PROCESS and is capable of engendering confusion in the assessment of budget implementation. Recognizing however, that there may be ex-ceptional situations where, in the overall public interest, virement could become ne-cessary in the course of the implementation of a budget, Section 27 of the FRA 2007 vests the power to recommend such virement to the National Assembly only on the Minister of Finance. Even at that, virements can only be between sub-heads of ac-counts, without exceeding the amount appropriated to such head of account. The fact that the National Assembly’s approval is required reinforces the transparency and accountability elements, which are the key drivers of fiscal prudence.
Cash not being released on time, or not released at all
Our nation’s fiscal prudence regimen is so robust that it clearly and unambiguously recognizes the possibility that in the course of a financial year, certain intervening factors could cause a reduction in targeted revenues, thus making earlier scheduled expenditures unfeasible. Section 28 addresses this by stipulating that in such an event, the Minister of Finance can act appropriately to restrict further commitments and financial operations until the targeted revenues are re-established. This is one of the very few situations in which the Fiscal Responsibility Act excuses a midstream change in the dynamics of the in-built PRUDENCE ASSURANCE PROCESS.
Lack of capacity/intention on the part of MDAs to expend according to the rule and earn good value-for-money
To ensure that fiscal prudence remains on the radar throughout the life of an Ap-propriations Act, the FRA, in Section 30, insists that the Minister of Finance, through the Budget Office of the Federation, not only monitor and evaluate the implementa-tion of annual budgets, but also publish their reports quarterly in public media in-cluding its website for all to see. Based on this, value-for-money can be assessed and verified by simply comparing the published claims of budget implementation with actual observations. The net effect is to create an atmosphere where fiscal impunity is discouraged.
Other prudence-related provisions of the FRA
Guarding against whimsical increases in government expenditure
In order to guard against whimsical increases in government expenditure, Section 36 of the FRA requires that the creation, expansion or improvement in government action which results in an expenditure increase be accompanied by:
i. An estimate of the budgetary or financial impact in the year it becomes effec-tive and in the two subsequent years; and
ii. A statement by the person requesting for the expenditure, stating that the in-crease is consistent with the Appropriations Act and the Medium-term Ex-penditure Framework.
Saving of excess revenue
Another important fiscal rules enshrined in the FRA 2007 is to the effect that the government should make intelligent efforts at forecasting its revenues. Where the estimate is surpassed in the course of the year by actual revenue as a result of a rise in the price of the commodity benchmarked in the budget, Section 35 of the FRA stipulates that the excess proceeds be saved and that the amount so saved be depo-sited in a separate account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Though the share of each government (i.e. Federal, states and LGs) from the saved amount and the income due them from the proceeds of investing the money will be clearly identified, Section 35(5) is clear in its instruction that no government in the Federation – whether Federal, State or Local council – should have access to these savings until and unless the reference commodity price falls below the benchmarked level for a period of 3 consecutive months. This need to save in times of plenty and have a reserve to which the Federal and sub national governments can make re-course to in lean times has been more robustly addressed by the recent legislation on the Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Fiscal deficit, borrowing and others
The FRA 2007 discourages a government from seeking to execute a budget deficit that is beyond 3% of GDP. It also specifies acceptable purposes and limits, as well as required documentation for borrowing. These are outlined in S.44-46 of the Act.
Transparency
A key aspect of Nigeria’s Prudence-assurance process is the requirement that issues relating to fiscal governance be placed in the public domain where citizens can not only observe them uninhibited, but can actually contribute and have their contribu-tions carried, as it were, in the scheme of things.
Fiscal prudence is now everybody’s business:
To finally tie up the PRUDENCE-ASSURANCE PROCESS, Section 51 of the Act went the farthest distance that any Act before it had gone on the issue of Locus Standi to grant that a person shall have legal capacity to enforce the provision of this Act by obtaining prerogative orders or other remedies at the Federal High Court, without having to show any special or particular interest. In essence, all citizens and stake-holders can, when the need arises, enforce appropriate fiscal behavior.
The prudence-quotient of the 2013 budget:
I am proud to note that by presenting the 2013 Appropriations Bill three months be-fore the end of the fiscal year, the government of President Goodluck Jonathan has broken away from the embarrassing record of past governments whereby a given year’s budget is presented to parliament for consideration many months after the fiscal year had begun. Timeousness is an important aspect of prudence.
Much as specific contents of the 2013 budget proposal may seem important in gauging prudence or the lack of it, the truth is that the process that is at work to produce the final budget and shepherd the implementation thereof is actually more important. The pertinent questions, therefore, concerning the prudence-quotient of the 2013 budget include the following:
“ Is the underpinning MTEF properly aligned to Vision 20:2020?
“ Is the 2013 budget largely derived from the MTEF and does it meet the process and parameter benchmarks for prudence laid out in the FRA? Please note that the benchmarks include the ratio of fiscal deficit to the GDP. They also include the justification, documentation, limits and purposes for borrowing outlined in S.44-46 of the FRA 2007.
“ Mechanically speaking, do the parameters, projections, policy thrusts, projects and assumptions of the 2013 budget bear the DNA of fiscal prudence?
“ Do relevant stakeholders – including states of the Federation, government cor-porations and other interest-based communities – feel a sense of ownership to-wards the 2013 budget?
“ More importantly, has there been sufficient transparency and inclusion in the process of developing and perfecting the budget? This is actually a question as to whether there has been enough time, knowledge and access for stakeholders and interest groups to dissect and analyze the proposal and, where necessary, repropose what they consider an improved version.
“ After the budget is signed by Mr President, the relevant prudence questions will become those that center on whether the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation has drawn up the Annual Cash Plan and whether based, on that projected expenditures and monthly cash flows, the Minister of Finance has scheduled (and published) disbursements to various projects and cost centres captured in the budget across MDAs.
“ In the more rigorous implementation phase, the questions will turn to issues of timely releases, public procurement practices, value-for-money, accountability and transparency.
It’s up to us all, really
To mainstream fiscal prudence, the questions above must not only be asked, they must be asked repeatedly and in relevant fora too. Flowing from this, I advise the Budget Office of the Federation to go a step further to place the draft of subse-quent budgets, starting from the 2014 budget, on its website for at least two weeks for Nigerians to study and scrutinize before it is forwarded to the Federal Executive Council. Such scrutiny may reveal duplications, bogus projects and the like which the Budget Office may address before forwarding to the FEC. Mr President will thus be saved the embarrassment of sending a budget to the National Assembly that eventually turns out to be full of avoidable errors.
I commend to every Nigerian, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, particularly Section 51 wherein every person is empowered to enforce fiscal prudence without needing to show any special or particular interest. The state has done its bit by providing this legal framework for prudent, transparent and inclusive fiscal management. Inciden-tally, these rules will only work if they are worked. It’s now up to you and I, the 150 million citizens of this great nation, to take advantage of Section 51 and stand up to be counted on matters concerning the alignment of public revenue and expenditure to the letter and intent of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007. That’s how to main-stream fiscal prudence.

Chief (Barr) Okewulonu is Commissioner in charge of Legal, Investigation & Enforcement Matters, Fiscal Responsibility Commission Abuja.

From ELEKWACHI CHINEDUM, Abuja
The Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has commended the people of Ghana for, living up to their rating as beacons of democracy in the West Africa sub-region.
The Speaker stated this in a congratulatory message he sent to the incumbent President, John Dramani Mahama.
“I warmly congratulate you and the good people of Ghana for making the sub-region proud, once more, by re-enacting a peaceful, free, fair, and credible election” he said.
He also noted that the success however goes beyond who won since it is neither an individual victory for Mr President nor Ghana alone, but a victory for democracy and integration for the entire peoples of West Africa.
“This, coming on the heels of similar democratic consolidation in Sierra-Leone, counts as an additional momentum for democracy and a bold statement to the entire world that democracy and good governance has indeed come to stay in our sub-region.”
While urging the President Mahama to galvanise all Ghanaians for the progress of the West African country irrespective of political inclinations, Senator Ekweremadu congratulated the opposition for staging a tight race for the office of the President and charged them to join hands with President Mahama to continue to move their country forward.