Study of Challenges Ahead for Institutional Implementation of Performance-Based Budgeting in the Nigerian Public Sector

Abstract

This paper examines the challenges of implementation of performance-based budgeting as part of the public sector reforms in Nigeria and the outcomes of such efforts. The objective is to determine whether the current public sector accounting and budgeting systems are appropriate for the realization of sectoral targets as a major objective of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA). It reviews the previous efforts at improving public service delivery via public sector reforms and the reasons for the failures recorded against such efforts. In particular, the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, being a major framework for carrying out the public sector reforms in Nigeria introduced in 2004, is examined in order to determine in what ways, if any, the provisions therein would require a reform in public sector budgeting and accounting systems to enhance transparency, accountability and efficiency in public service delivery and economic development in Nigeria. To this end, it undertakes a comparative review of the public sector reform in New Zealand and Australia with a view to establishing the reform drivers and critical factors that made their reform efforts successful. It establishes that although the reasons for public sector reforms in Nigeria and New Zealand and Australia are the same, one of the critical success drivers in the latter countries is conspicuously missing in the former. It concludes that given the level of performance of the reform effort, its success may depend on the inclusion of the missing reform driver, that is, reform of the public sector financial reporting system by adopting an accounting system that is suitable for measuring performance.