Yelwa explains FRC ActTHE Chairman of Ekiti State Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Mr. Bayo Aina, has asked for Federal Government's assistance in domesticating fiscal responsibility best practice in the state.Aina made the request when he led a delegation of Ekiti State Fiscal Responsibility Commission on a study visit to the Federal Fiscal Responsibility Commission in Abuja recently.He told the Chairman of FRC that Ekiti wanted technical support so as to become a model of fiscal responsibility best practice in the country, adding that the structure and working modalities of Fiscal Responsibility Law would be helpful.According to Aina, 'we intend to take this as a very serious law and lay good example for others to follow.'He also said that Ekiti intended using the fiscal responsibility law to increase its internally generated revenue to boost its self-sufficiency and reduce dependence on monthly allocation from Federation Accounts.He added that the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi did not just appoint members of the State Fiscal Responsibility as figure heads, insisting that they were all men of integrity who were determined to work so that Ekiti and Nigeria became an economically strong nation.Responding, the Chairman of Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Alhaji Aliyu Jibril Yelwa, said that the adoption of Fiscal Responsibility Law by Ekiti State was a welcome development given the fact that Nigeria was one economy in spite of its fiscal federalism.Yelwa urged other states in Nigeria to adopt the law, adding that he envisaged the formation of Fiscal Responsibility Council to coordinate fiscal responsibility operations across the states in the near future.He promised the assistance of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission to Ekiti State in the area of training and technical support as specified in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.Meanwhile, Yelwa has said that the Fiscal Responsibility Law, 2007 was aimed at entrenching good governance in Nigeria's fiscal operations.Speaking while receiving the Canadian Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Jean Gauthier on Tuesday, Yelwa said that the medium term expenditure framework, which the FRC Act mandated the budget process to be guided by the needs and aspirations of the Nigerian people.Yelwa, therefore, called on the three tiers of government to involve and consult the people in the budget process as specified by the Act given its centrality to governance, adding that good governance could not be said to exist if the common man did not feel the impact of government.He added that the Fiscal Responsibility Law could not be implemented without discipline, adding that a situation where politicians made promises without fulfilling them was bad augury.According to Yelwa, if the Commission was given both national and international support, it would do a lot in enforcing transparency and budget discipline in the country.
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