Preview

Corruption in Nigeria

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
9501 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Corruption in Nigeria
Joint Africa Institute
Seminar on the Role of Parliamentarians in Promoting Good Public Financial Management and Accountability in Africa
Tunis, November 19-23, 2007

Public Financial Management and Corruption[1]

Public Financial Management (PFM) ordinarily covers the management of government revenue, expenditure and cash. Corruption defined as the diversion of public resources for private use can affect any of these operations, at the level of the national and sub-national administrations. This paper focuses on circumstances that are prone to corruptive practices in managing expenditure and cash at the national level. It does not discuss revenue.

The outline of the paper is as follows: Sections I and II provide an overview of PFM and corruption, respectively. They are followed in Section III by a brief analysis of the relationship between corruption and the budget process and the requirements for reducing this malfeasance.

I. An overview of PFM

What is PFM?

PFM can be defined as framework of laws, regulations, traditions and practices for managing government finances in order to achieve macro-fiscal stability (real growth with low inflation, no payment arrears, sustainable debt, etc.), an optimal allocation of resources (increased social welfare), efficiency of public spending (more public goods and services at lowest market prices), and good governance (transparency and accountability). PFM regulates procedures that apply in four broad areas: budget, treasury, accounting, and control.

The budget is prepared by the executive branch which, in turn, sends it to the legislature for debate and adoption. A good budget is timely, comprehensive and presented using a simple and easily understandable terminology. After approval, it is implemented by the government which is responsible for providing timely budget execution reports. The budget is executed at four key stages: commitment, verification, payment order, and payment.

Treasury procedures and operations



References: The Corruption Notebooks 2006, Stories From the Worldwide Struggle Against Abuse of Power, Edited by Jonathan Werve and Global Integrity, Global Integrity, 2007. Dorotinsky William and Pradhan Sanjay in The Many Faces of Corruption, Tracking Vulnerability at the Sector Level, Edited by J. Edgardo Campos and Sanjay Pradhan, The World Bank, 2007. Isaksen, Jan (2005), The budget Process and Corruption, Chr. Michelsen Institute, U4Issue 3:2005. The Many Faces of Corruption, Tracking Vulnerability at the Sector Level, Edited by J. Edgardo Campos and Sanjay Pradhan, The World Bank, 2007. Manual on Fiscal Transparency, Fiscal Affairs department, IMF, Revised edition, 2007.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Perhaps no other function of government is more important than the budget process and the resulting budget document. According to the Government Finance Officers Association [GFOA], (1998) “A good budget process is far more than the preparation of a legal document that appropriates funds for a series of line items. Good budgeting is a broadly defined process that has political, managerial, planning, communication and financial dimensions”. The budget document needs to be more than an accounting statement that reconciles revenues and expenditures. A good budget document serves to ensure that government is efficiently using the scarce resources it possesses and in turn delivering the goods and services needed by the public. The budget document must also be “strategic in nature, encompassing a multi-year financial and operating plan that allocates resources on the basis of identified goals” (GFAO 1998). In short, a good budget document and budget process translate an organizations policies, plans and political commitments into an actionable plan whose performance can be tracked against stated objectives to measure overall operational efficiency and organizational success.…

    • 1569 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Seyf, A. 2001. Corruption and development: a study of conflict. Development in Practice 11: 597605.…

    • 2095 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Bribery & Corruption

    • 2086 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Before the 1990’s, the conventional belief was that corruption in developing countries was practically inevitable and in some cases even desirable. However, a more in-depth investigation into this issue suggests that bribery and corruption can cause significant problems for all parties involved. For example, for suppliers of bribes such as corporations, it can cause many uncertainties since the quality and the price of their products are not the only factors considered in the transaction (Hamra, 2000). Therefore, corporations are not usually in favor of undertaking such business transactions because ultimately, they lead to higher expenses. The host county that receives the bribe can also suffer due to reduced growth, price distortion, low domestic and foreign investment, higher levels of poverty, unsafe products, damaging environmental practices, many human rights violations, and domestic conflicts. Considering all the above mentioned reasons, stakeholders including governments, corporations, nongovernmental organizations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, condemn corruption and bribery (Andrew, 2011). However, this paper will argue that even though such practices are condemned and counties may attempt to combat it by signing Anti-Bribery conventions, this will not be adequate until they begin to actively enforce it domestically.…

    • 2086 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over the last few years, the issue of corruption has attracted interest. There are a number of reasons why this topic has come under recent inspection. Corruption scandals have destroyed governments everywhere. For example, the government of Rome, during the time Julius Caesar…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    World over, the actions and failures of Public Administrators are easily noticed in all avenues of…

    • 3778 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Taylor&Francis.Conklin D. (2009). Corruption : the international evolution of new management challenges. Richard Ivey School of Business.…

    • 1551 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Leading With Love Analysis

    • 1748 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Conklin, D. W. (2009). Corruption: The international evolution of new management challenges. London, ON: Ivey Publishing.…

    • 1748 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kelly, J., & Wanna, J. (2000). New public management and the politics of government budgeting. International Public Management Review, 1(1), 33-54. Retrieved from http://www3.imp.unisg.ch/org/idt/.../IPMR_1_1_BUDGETING.pdf…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Penteado, Claudia. 1997. “Global highlight: Brazil 's Ethos Institute 's 'Corruption Inc. '” Advertising Age 78 (6): 27.…

    • 1870 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Benefits of Globalization

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Scholars have identified a number of different kinds of corruption. For example, it is argued that one can distinguish between political and bureaucratic corruption and parochial (to achieve status) and market corruption (for money) and that recognising the motivators behind these different kinds of corruption can be useful in determining ways to combat the problem.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    rule of law

    • 493 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The absence of corruption - conventionally defined as the use of public power for private gain - is one of the hallmarks of a society governed by the rule of law, as corruption is a manifestation...…

    • 493 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    ^ Colvin, Geoff (20 April 2011). "Corruption: The biggest threat to developing economies". CNNMoney. http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/19/news/international/corruption_developing_economies.fortune/?section=money_latest. Retrieved 23 May 2011.…

    • 5558 Words
    • 23 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “Shadow Economies and Corruption all over the World: What do we really know?”, September 2006 by Friedrich Schneider, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria…

    • 2280 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Wallace, W. (2005). Public Sector Corruption: Lessons from Daiwa, Sumitomo, and Bank of Estonia. Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management , 17 (3), 365-397.…

    • 4934 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    two ethical challenges

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages

    References:  Amundsen, Inge; Tone Sissener and Tina Soreide (2000), Research on Corruption: A Policy Oriented Survey. Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) & Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Oslo/Bergen.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays