The Country Director, Actionaid, Mrs Ojobo Atuluku, has said discipline and integrity of government officials were crucial for the success of the newly introduced Zero-Based Budget scheme.
Atuluku said this at a two-day workshop, organised by Actionaid for Civil Society Organisations, to discuss Federal Government’s proposed Zero-Based Budget from 2016.
The Tide source  recalled that Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, disclosed that the government was planning to use a zero-based budgeting format for its 2016 planning.
He said the new system would be properly coordinated to ensure that it was policy-driven, especially the proposed social intervention policy of the President Muhammdu Buhari’s administration.
The zero-based system is an approach to planning and decision-making in which all expenses must be justified for each new period within an organisation.
Each project before approval is analysed on the basis of needs and cost-benefit analysis.
Atuluku said that this was the first time Nigeria was practising the scheme and she believed that it was an opportunity for new ideas in terms of projects execution.
She said the scheme had a lot of potential advantages for the country in terms of prudent financial management since it’s about justifying every line of expenditure.
“I think that if the government implements the zero-based budgeting correctly, it is a better way than the incremental budget that we used to implement.
“For Zero-Based Budgeting to succeed in Nigeria, discipline, integrity and a logical approach is needed.
“Let us pray that political influences do not become the main stay of what gets on the budget while using this approach but rather the needs of Nigerians.
“So in terms of what the zero-based budget will get for us, we are hopeful that if it is well applied, it will priotise the issues that Nigerians need to be tackled,” she said.
Atuluku said the workshop was to enable Civil Society Actors to better understand the issues around the budgeting so that they could act better in keeping government accountable to the people.
Meanwhile, a Public Financial Management consultant, Mr Chinedum Nwoko, said that e-payment platforms needed to function efficiently for the budget system to work in the country,
“GIFMIS, IPPIS, TSA are crucial to the success of Zero-Based Budgeting in Nigeria. So government has to think deeply about personnel cost level and ensure that all its agencies cue into IPPIS.
“Government also needs to ensure realistic revenue projections and avoid excess optimism. Revenue leakages must be blocked by enforcing extant revenue accounting and control measures.
“It should also ensure that parastatals accurately and promptly report revenue collection through TSA or other legal mechanisms,” he said.