E-Governance and Public Sector Financial Disclosures: Analysis of Government Agencies in Nigeria

One of the core responsibilities of any government to its citizens is financial accountability and transparency. This is to re-assure the stakeholders that the government is people oriented and enables the stakeholders to hold the government in power accountable to its electoral promises. In Nigeria therefore, financial dealings of the government and its parastatals has been shrouded in secrecy. It will be worthy to note that, the remuneration of national assembly members and many state governors are not made known to the public. And when this is rarely done, full details of their financial transactions are not disclosed. Unlike in the private sector, where financial disclosures are made known to owners of the business (Shareholders) at the Annual General Meetings (AGM), the public sector in Nigeria has not emulated this. However, pockets of state governors in Nigeria have attempted to do this manually by engaging in 'town hall' meetings to discuss their revenue and expenditure, this does not have far reaching impact on the citizens in this information technology age. Therefore, e-governance platform is imperative for government to reach a wider audience in term of impact and delivery. The question therefore is that, is Nigerian government both at the federal, state and local government engaging this platform to disclose their financial transactions? And rarely when they do, are they making full disclosures of the financial activities? A government that discloses its financial activities would enable stakeholders analyzes its performance and asks questions on the financial prudency of the state and this would prevent corruption and theft of peoples' collective/common wealth. This study analyzed the contents of various government parastatals website to determine whether these agencies make financial disclosure and the extent to which those disclosures are made. In addition, the study will also consider whether stakeholders are allowed to contribute or suggest alternative(s) in form of feedback to the government. It is therefore recommended that the audited financial report/statement which is a stewardship report showing how the common wealth allocated has been utilized. As such, the Financial Reporting Council and other government regulatory bodies should endeavor to mandate Ministries to place on their various websites a copy of the audited account of the Ministries and perhaps a copy of such report sent to appropriate quarters to ensure compliance.