FRC SENSITIZES YOUTH CORPS MEMBERS ON FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

Oru Leonard

The Fiscal by Responsibility Commission (FRC), has begun its sensitization drive to members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), on issues around fiscal governance and fiscal responsibility in the management of the nation’s resources for the year 2022.

The exercise took place simultaneously at six NYSC Orientation Camps, namely the NYSC Orientation Camp, Kubwa Abuja, NYSC Keffi Orientation Camp, Nasarawa State, NYSC Benue State Orientation Camp, NYSC Kogi State Orientation Camp, NYSC Plateau State Orientation camp and NYSC Orientation Camp Kaduna. The program centred on the sensitization of Corps Members on issues of Fiscal Governance.

It is a programme that is billed to become a nationwide event aimed to get Nigerian youths and future leaders to understand the concept of fiscal responsibility and fiscal governance, including acquainting them with the objectives of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), 2007, and the benefits of its implementation in the management of the nation’s resources.

During the sensitization program held today in Kaduna State, officials of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission led by Mr Bede Ogueri Anyanwu, Head, Strategic Communications Directorate, Fiscal Responsibility Commission introduced the youth corps members to the tenets of fiscal responsibility, prudence in public finance management, the budgetary process and economic management generally.

Speaking to the corps members, Mr Bede Anyanwu of the FRC said they have come to the Orientation Camps to encourage the Corp members with accounts of what the country is doing right and where they could make it better.

According to him, they have come to ask the Corps to take advantage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 and to ask legitimate questions where and when necessary as contained in section 51 of Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.

Mr Anyanwu said, the Commission will continue to awaken the citizen’s consciousness of the need for transparent and accountable public expenditure management by catching them young. The NYSC programme which ultimately produces the bulk of the public servants in our country is a cherished target. The struggle to up the ante to achieve our mandates as a Commission is on. All hands must be on deck.

The NYSC Camp Director for the Kaduna Orientation Camp, Mr Isa Wana in his remarks, expressed his happiness for the wonderful sensitization exercise for Corps Members to be aware of Fiscal Responsibility in their daily dealings.
These sensitization programmes come on the heels of the collaborative pact reached with the management of the NYSC during a courtesy visit by the Chairman of FRC, Barr. Victor Muruako, to the Director-General of NYSC, Brigadier-General Shuaibu Ibrahim, recently. The collaboration between the Commission and NYSC is to provide a platform for developing future leaders on the importance of fiscal responsibility and prudent management of the nation’s resources.

According to the Chairman of the Commission, Barr. Victor Muruako, “we will continue to awaken the citizen’s consciousness of the need for a transparent and accountable public expenditure management by catching them young. The NYSC program which ultimately produces the bulk of the public servants in our country is a cherished target”.

The events are part of another novel step and efforts by the management of the FRC to ensure that the FRA, 2007 is wholly implemented and popularized in the day-to-day delivery of public service and guarantee value for money for the benefit of citizens. There are also plans by the FRC to take the sensitization programmes to institutions of higher learning in a bid to push for the adoption of fiscal responsibility in the school curriculum.

Recall that the Fiscal Responsibility Act came into existence in 2007. It is an Act to provide for prudent management of the nation’s resources, ensure long-term macro-economic stability of the national economy, secure greater accountability and transparency in fiscal operations within a medium-term fiscal policy framework, and the establishment of the fiscal responsibility Commission to ensure the promotion and enforcement of the nation’s economic objectives; and for related matters.