Cash managers in Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have been told to come up with ways civil servants salaries can be paid on time.
They have also been told to design effective ways to manage government’s cash flows as well as uphold accountability for public expenditure.
The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Idris Ahmed, told cash managers in MDAs to support government’s budget execution and efficient resource allocation.
Idris Ahmed made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at a retreat for members of the Technical Sub-Committee on Cash Management (TSCM).
Idris appealed to them “to effectively manage the several government cash flows and efficiently deploy idle cash where it exists”.
Represented by Mr Chuks Anamekwe, Director Inspectorate, Office of the Accountant of the Federation, Idris Ahmed implored “all participants to brainstorm and come up with cash and financial management strategies and practices that will help advance the practice of modern-day cash management”.
According to him, “we must all strive towards coming up with the strategies that will help in establishing the roles of stakeholders towards operationalizing the bottom-up cash management policy”.
If fully adopted and applied, the bottom-up cash management policy he said “will greatly help in ensuring that sufficient cash is available to the government as and when needed to meet commitments, to make payments, controlling aggregate cash flows within fiscal, monetary and legal limits, and improving the management of government’s domestic borrowing program, as well as facilitating investment of excess or idle cash.”
Other benefits of the policy he said include: “upholding greater accountability for public expenditure as well as supporting budget execution and efficient resource allocation, supporting the macro-economic policy of Government and ensure efficient and cost-effective public service delivery that accords value for money and enabling financing arrangements to be made in advance in order to meet cash shortages.”
In his welcome address the Director (Funds), OAGF Mr. Sabo Mohammed said the COVID-19 pandemic has thought cash managers to adopt innovative means of running government finances.
“Our experience in the past one year has really been a very interesting one, proving to us that our job in the Committee requires innovations. This, we are ready to imbibe and constantly put to practice. We shall put heads together at this forum to tell ourselves the truth and come up with better ideas of moving with the tide” he said.
