Fed Govt Plans New Policy To Track Public Spending
As the Federal Government struggles to generate revenue and manage its rising expenditure, it plans to launch a new policy for public finance management.
This policy, referred to as the Bottom-Up Cash Planning Policy, will be launched on February Friday for effective tracking of government spending.
The programme, which takes off the same day the old naira notes will cease to be legal tender, has been in the works since 2009 when the Federal Government initiated a feasibility study to determine the best strategies to address its cash management challenges as part of its Public Financial Management reforms.
The Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Sylva Okolieaboh, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday at the training programme on Bottom-Up cash Planning Policy for Accountants of various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.
According to him, shortly after the pilot roll-out of the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System alongside the Treasury Single Account in April 2012, the process of implementing an efficient cash management system commenced.
Explaining the programme further, he said, “Bottom-up cash planning, as the name suggests, is the collection and aggregation of government cash needs through the individual spending units. As part of the overall government cash management arrangement, it facilitates the optimal allocation and utilisation of government cash resources. Other objectives are minimising the costs of holding cash balances; reducing risk (operational, credit and market risk); adding flexibility to the ways in which the timing of government cash inflows and outflows can be matched; and supporting other financial policies.
“Implementation of Bottom-Up Cash Planning will bring more certainty to budget execution and engender fiscal discipline.”
He also noted that the Bottom-up Cash Management Policy guidelines were approved by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning on June 1, 2020, adding that the formal approval of its implementation by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) on August 24, 2022, set the stage for its rollout.
