The Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dr. Joe Abah has disclosed that linking the pricelist held by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) with the budgeting template has made the 2017 budget more credible than the previous ones.
Dr. Abah who spoke on Reforming The Public Service of Nigeria on Frankly Speaking a radio programme of WE FM in Abuja recently, noted that the issue of budget padding is not so pronounced in the 2017 budget as was the case with the 2016 and hopes that with the checks in place, the 2018 budget will be better than as the issue of padding will no longer rear its ugly head.
He further disclosed that the passage of the new budget law with the National Assembly will ensure that budgets are passed as at when due as legal timeframes will be set as to when the Executive is to submit and when the National Assembly is to appropriate.
Furthermore, he talked about the Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) which was developed by the Bureau to enable Agencies assess themselves against global best practices in a non-threatening way. He also said that SAT had been piloted in some agencies and that it is fully developed and ready to be deployed.
When asked to describe the Bureau, he said it is a think-tank of government that ensures that government does its job better and coordinates reform efforts across government agencies to ensure they do not overlap.
On the issue of what will he would like to be remembered for, Dr. Abah whose tenure will be ending in August this year, said he wished to be remembered as someone who tried his best to show that it can be done.
Anastasia Ogbonna
AD
BPSR
