Govt trying to ensure accountability: Barker

THE executive director of the Institute of National Affairs Paul Barker says the Government is trying to ensure compliance and accountability of public money.
He raised some questions during the 2018 budget lock-up.
“(There is) a high level of expenditure on recurrent rather than on capital budget. But let’s face it, recurrent budget is an important part, that’s what actually pays for salaries,” he said.
“There is population increase and so we to need to increase the budget for that.
“But we know there have been ghosts, there have been wastages, we know the public service has a big range of some performing and some not performing.
“And we know that in areas like public procurement, there have been a lot of wastage, and there has been a lot of other components in public expenditure.
“So trying to strengthen the accountability mechanisms, we’ve heard that the IFMS (Integrated Financial Management System) that has been rolled out, the closer supervision of public expenditure at the national and sub-national level, absolutely critical.
“There was a question there about whistle blowing. We do need the freedom of information legislation to complement what’s in the constitution.
“And we also need whistle blower legislation so when abuse is occurring, waste is occurring, employees will be able to report it to the authorities to ensure that it’s stopped.”