The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has charged members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to be prudent in the management of the nation’s resources.
FRC Chairman, Mr Victor Muruako, gave the charge at an inaugural sensitisation programme that took place simultaneously at the NYSC Orientation Camps in Kubwa, Abuja and Keffi, Nasarawa State.
A statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by Mr Bede Anyanwu, Head, Strategic Communications Directorate of the FRC, said Muruako was represented at the event by his Special Assistant, Mr Chris Uwadoka.
Muruako introduced the corps members to the tenets of fiscal responsibility, prudence in public finance management, the budgetary process and economic management generally.
He urged them to take advantage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 (FRA) and ask legitimate questions where and when necessary as contained in Section 51 of the Act.
Muruako encouraged the corps members to take into account the good things going on in the country and come up with ways to make them better.
He also assured them that the commission would continue to awaken the citizen’s consciousness to the need for a transparent and accountable public expenditure management by catching them young.
“The NYSC programme which ultimately produces the bulk of the public servants in our country is obviously a cherished target.
“The struggle to up the ante to achieve our mandates as a commission is on and all hands must be on deck,” he said.
The NYSC Camp Directors at the two orientation camps said it was a good exercise that would make corps members to be conscious of fiscal responsibility in their daily dealings.
The sensitisation programmes are a result of a collaborative pact reached with the management of the NYSC during a courtesy visit by Muruako to the Director-General of NYSC, Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, recently.
The collaboration between the commission and NYSC is to provide a platform for developing future leaders on the importance of fiscal responsibility and prudent management of the nation’s resources.
It is also part of efforts by the FRC to ensure that the FRA, 2007 is wholly implemented and popularised in the day-to-day delivery of public service and guarantee value for money for the benefit of citizens.
The FRC also said there were plans to take the sensitisation programme to institutions of higher learning in a bid to push for the adoption of fiscal responsibility in the school curriculum.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the FRA which came into existence in 2007 is an Act to provide for prudent management of the nation’s resources and ensure long-term macro-economic stability of the national economy.
It also seeks to secure greater accountability and transparency in fiscal operations within a medium-term fiscal policy framework.
