Accra, March 12, - A five-day
workshop on common financial governance principles in the ECOWAS Monetary zone
has opened in Accra, with a call on participants to use the knowledge acquired
to ensure effective financial control to spur the development of the region.
The conference is part of ongoing efforts to
develop a common financial governance principles framework for member countries
of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Speaking at the opening of the
regional training workshop on Principles of effective financial governance in
ECOWAS Monetary Zone, Professor Femi Adjayi, the Director of Democratic Studies
at the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, (NILDS) of
the Nigerian National Assembly in Abuja, bemoaned the ‘abysmal’ performance of
African countries on the 2017 Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG).
“This situation calls for concern
to elevate the sub-region’s good financial governance status,” he said, adding
that transparent and accountable governance was pivotal to the development of
the continent.
He said if the African countries
achieved a transparent and accountable financial governance, it would help
address the challenges of development that they faced, but noted that this
would require mobilising and distributing revenue equitably, assuring fiscal
sustainability and credibility, matching resource allocation to development
priorities and cost effectiveness, among others.
In line with this, the workshop,
organised by the NILDS through its capacity building structure, the NILS
Capacity Building Project II, and the West African Institute of Financial and
Economic Management (WAIFEM) with sponsorship from the African Capacity
Building Foundation (ACBF), was aimed at bringing out the basic conceptual
framework of financial governance for the public sector.
This would cover tax
administration, budget preparation, execution, control and audit to ensure
international best practice in public financial management.
“It is hoped that the challenges
of realizing good financial governance in ECOWAS Monetary Zone would be
identified in this forum and credible political efforts committed towards
achieving good governance reforms…to reduce corruption and financial recklessness”.
Mr Dickson Antwi, Regional
Manager of ACBF, said while there had been sustained economic growth, it had
not improved the state of governance, which was evident in the results of the
2017 Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), which measures and monitors
governance performance in Africa countries.
According to him, the overall
performance of African countries on the Index was 50.8 out of 100. At the same
time, the World Governance Indicator data on governance effectiveness in Africa
had also showed a decline over the last 15 years and remained low compared to
other regions in the same period.
He said West African countries
performed worst on the indicator of Diversion of public funds, compared to
their counterparts in the Southern African Development Community (SADEC) and
the Maghreb region.
“When it comes to that indicator,
we are not doing well at all. What that tells us is that we need to work extra
hard to prevent people from diverting public funds into private use,” he said.
He stated that recommendations
from the workshop will be put into a communique that will be presented for
subsequent discussion by policy makers at another workshop to be held.
Participants at the workshop
included staff or clerks of finance and accounts committees of national
Parliaments of ECOWAS member states, senior staff of Ministries of Finance and
Economic Planning, Trade and Exchange Units of Central Banks and ECOWAS
institutions and agencies, among others.
GNA
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