The lnstitute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) has advised the Federal Government to ensure efficiency in governance by allowing the private sector to drive the economy growth while it restricts itself to regulation as opposed to taking part.
It also berated the Federal Government over shoddy manner in which many of the economic and fiscal policies were implemented describing it as ‘lacking human face’.
The President of ICAN, Dr lnnocent Okwuosa, while speaking with journalists in Lagos, said that the “private sector plays an important role in most economies, providing essential services and products, job opportunities, generating revenue for the government through tax, and implementing innovations that mitigate socio-economic challenges,” adding that what the government needed was to provide the enabling environment for operators to thrive.
While observing that the government has done well by coming out with a lot of economic policies, which are considered right in the way they were structured, however, he said the policies were wrong in the area of implementation.
Specifically, he emphasised that there is policy inadequacies, and prioritisation, adding that the prioritisation aspect deals with which of the policies must come first.” “The issue of electricity tariff came at a time Nigerians were suffering from impact of high exchange rate, and removal of fuel subsidy. What we felt is that in the implementation, it should have been done putting a human face to the policy and this is the aspect, where the government failed.”
Okwuosa expressed worries over government’s display of ‘no consequences for bad behaviour’ by agencies established for accountability and transparency on those who are involved in financial corruption.
“ If you do not perform or found to do something bad in government, there have to be consequences,” he warned.
