by By George Odok Jr
The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has visited the Ministry of International Development Cooperation to strengthen its partnership and collaboration on the role of the FRC Law as regards Public Financial Management and to assist in the execution of the law across the MDAs in the state.
The delegation on the visit was led by the Chairman of FRC in Cross River State, Hon. Moses Oko.
Speaking on the law, Mr. Otu, Otu-Ita, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Fiscal Responsibility Commission, stated that the law has four terminal guidelines as follows:
Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEFW) which is a 3 year pan where the annual budget is derived. In relation to the budget, the law specifies that the budget preparation must meet the timelines of 30th September, 2020.
The 3rd aspect of the law is on issues of borrowing. this will guide the state on setting a borrowing ceiling to enable state not to over shoot its borrowing limit, while the 4th is on how all the public finances are expended.
Mr. Otu-Ita said that, there is a need to institutionalize the Fiscal Responsibility Law in the state as this, will not only help in the transparency and accountability of public financial management, but could also help in the relief of the state debt profile.
He also added that the Fiscal Responsibility Commission at the federal level could provide technical support to MDAs and back users of the State Integrated Financial Management Information System (SIFMIS).
In her response, the Commissioner, Dr. Mrs. Inyang Asibong intimated the SSA that the state was already implementing SIFMIS and that the 18 LGAs are currently being trained on SIFMIS under the State and Local Governance Reform Project.
