MDAs: FG Explains New Policy On Cash Management, Assures Its Transparency In Expenditures, Revenue Generation

The federal government has explained that the revised policy on cash management and bottom-up cash plan operational guidelines introduced last month is meant to ensure proper utilisation of funds on projects or items for which cash are released.

The Coordinating minister of the economy and minister of finance, Wale Edun and the Accountant General of the Federation, Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein, respectively gave this explanation at the stakeholders interactive/sensitisation session on the revised policy on cash management and bottom-up cash planning held on Thursday, in Abuja.

The programme was organised by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) to enlighten stakeholders in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on its implementation, processes and merits of the revised policy.

The Minister explained that it  is meant to ensure that procurement processes are done in line with government directives and identified contractors are paid directly. According to Mr. Edun, “It enhances transparency, efficiency, accountability and responsibility”.

He urged the stakeholders to be alive to the implementation of the policy as it is meant for better management of cash requirements.

On her part, the Accountant General of the Federation, Dr. Madein explained that under the revised policy, the Accounting officers in various MDAs are the final approver for requisition, purchase order, contract, job order, delivery note and job completion certificate. She specified that this is applicable to MDAs procurement and contract management on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).

However, she cautioned that should the Accounting officer decide to delegate responsibility, he or she should bear in mind that he or she would be held responsible in any event of anything going wrong.

She explained that the revised policy was introduced to make the system work better following the directive of President Bola Tinubu that contract payments should no longer be released to the MDAs but to the OAGF who pays directly to the respective contractors and the necessary taxes deducted.

Dr. Madein said the essence of the interactive session was to generate contributions from the stakeholders for efficient implementation of the policy.

She observed that though new policies are bound to have some hitches at the initial stage of implementation, but assured that the newly introduced revised policy would guarantee efficient expenditures and revenue generation.