CISLAC Tasks Security Agencies On Transparency In Financial Dealings

BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja

Participants at a one-day workshop on 'Reforms Focusing on Financial Management, Gender and Operational Disparities in the Nigerian Defence and Security Sector' held in Keffi, Nasarawa State recently. 

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has tasked security agencies on transparency and accountability in financial dealings by properly disclosing the relevant components of the Defence and Security procurement processes. 

This was even as the organisation sought for adequate respect for human rights of the citizens, while upholding the sanity and sanctity of the constitution and international human rights convention. 

These were the outcome of a one-day workshop on 'Reforms Focusing on Financial Management, Gender and Operational Disparities in the Nigerian Defence and Security Sector' held in Keffi, Nasarawa State on August 29, 2023. 

Participants were drawn from security agencies, civil society organisations, academia and the media, including the Executive Director of CISLAC/TI-Nigeria, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), Prof. Chris Kwaja and  Dr Sunday Adehjo. 

The workshop was aimed at revisiting reform efforts in the defence and security sector, while proffering holistic recommendations to various challenges hampering the process. 

In a communique issued at the end of the meeting, stakeholders harped on the need for strict adherence to defence and security doctrine in line with the rules of engagement, operating procedures, budget systems, personnel policies and relationships. 

Stakeholders requested the integration of gender component in defence and security budget, while calling on relevant ministries to enhance adequate financial planning that would guarantee gender-related compliance.

They hinted that the existing outdated legal provisions in the Nigerian Audit Act rendered the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF) operationally-inefficient to interrogate challenges in defence and security financial management.

To this end, they enjoined the National Assembly to facilitate the amendment of Audit Act and address the current challenges while compelling the OAuGF to fully examine financial management in defence and security sector. 

The experts pointed out that some members of defence and security committee at the National Assembly lacked the technical capacity, which they linked as a major barrier to efficient civilian oversight of financial management and operational activities in the defence and security sector. 

They disclosed that faulty recruitment process, inadequate human resources in addition to decentralised remuneration system and structure constituted a major impediment to efficient service delivery by the defence and security sector. 

Stakeholders lamented that while gender disparity in the sector is a global phenomenon, certain cultural barriers backed by socially-ascribed roles or values have continued to militate against adequate women’s participation and representation in the defence and security sector. 

"While the defence and security sector has the primary mandate for the design, planning, coordination and implementation of it's policies, adequate and sustainable reform in the sector remains a collective responsibility," the experts added.