The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) said it has partnered with the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE)to design a curriculum on fiscal responsibility.
The chairman of the commission, Mr Victor Muruako, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja.
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He said the curriculum would focus on Fiscal Responsibility and Accountability in Public Service Management, to be taught in universities and other tertiary institutions.
According to him, much has been achieved towards designing the curriculum, which is aimed at ensuring the engagement of citizens in fiscal transparency at all levels.
“Our aim is to catch students young as we are beginning to have fiscal responsibility enthusiasts amongst youths in schools due to our sensitisation programmes, so it’s a work in progress,” he said.
Muruako said the commission had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the National Universities Commission (NUC) to promote fiscal transparency.
“We have taken our drive to several NYSC camps and plans are underway to visit more camps.
“Our engagements have been successful so far and youths are becoming more aware and conscious which is part of what is raising awareness amongst them.
“They are getting to know about what it should be, what it means to be transparent in public finance management and are now getting more active,” Muruako said.
He said it was imperative for students and youths to understand that they don’t have to graduate or be at the top national level before knowing the appropriate conduct in governance or leadership.
“We have gotten positive responses from the students and they have assured us that they are now on their own trying to implement some of the things they have learnt from us,” the chairman said.
He also said that the commission had created online platforms to engage with citizens, as part of its fiscal transparency and accountability drive.
“We had also engaged civil society organisations, citizens, critical stakeholders at the sub-nationals, debt management officers amongst others with the aim of exchanging ideas.
“We have had workshops for sub-national officials where we tried to interact with them for effective productivity.
“We had training in Kano for the North West zone, Port Harcourt for south-south, Lagos for South-west, Yola for North-east, Jos for North-central, Uyo for South-south and Lagos for South-west,” he said.
NAN reports that the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 has mandated the Commission to compel any person or government institution to disclose information relating to public revenues and expenditure.