By Mark Longyen & Princes Ajide
Nigeria’s House of Representatives Deputy Speaker, Rep. Benjamin Kalu, has identified accountability, credibility, and transparency as central themes in the work of the ECOWAS Parliament’s Joint Committee he is heading.
He said this in an interview with newsmen in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on the sidelines of the committee’s delocalised meeting in the Ivorian capital city.
Kalu is the Chairman of the parliament’s Joint Committee on Administration, Finance, Budget, Public Accounts, Macroeconomic Policy and Economic Research.
The lawmaker explained that all the financial committees under the aegis of the joint committee seek to interrogate the financial health of the parliament.
“For instance, what are those roles we’re supposed to play to enable us to become more transparent, show high-level integrity, and be more accountable?
“And as you know, it’s an evolving institution, which somehow has certain transparency structures, accountability structures, and credibility structures that are supposed to have come of age.
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“So, what we are doing is to dissect the structures as they are at the moment,” he further said.
He added: “Put the first thing first. Put the integrity scale to score high for the community.
“Put the transparency scale to score high; and put the accountability scale to score high.
“Once we build our credibility, there will be a lot of support coming from here and there.”
The ECOWAS parliament, he said, was also looking at possible ways of blocking the gaps that weaken its transparency, accountability, and credibility.
“Are there things that are not existing there?
“How do we strengthen them?
“At the end of this technical session, hopefully we will come up with a resolution that is going to be the best for the subcommittees,” he said.