The Open Government Partnership, a multilateral initiative has commended the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), for operating ‘citizen-centric’ administration.
Mr Sanjay Pradhan, OGP’s Chief Executive Officer, gave the commendation when he led members of a delegation to the area council.
Pradhan said the OGP is aimed at building trust in government by ensuring that government activities are transparent to citizens.
He also said that the citizens must be allowed to shape and oversee activities that affect them.
Pradhan added that OGP was results-oriented, as it would encourage the citizens to do their part by paying their taxes.
“It is clear from this that you are committed to transparency, accountability, fighting corruption and I really salute you for that because that is the spirit of OGP.
He said the concepts of good governance and citizen centric administration are intimately connected.
In his remarks, Mr Christopher Maikalangu, Chairman, AMAC, appreciated the group for the visit.
He assured of his administration’s commitment to focus on OGP, in order to build a strong institution devoid of corruption.
The chairman said that he had since carried out a comprehensive audit of all the financial activities of the technical partners with the council on the revenue generation sector.
“This is to make an appraisal and recommendations that would promote best practices in the sector.
”This is in our efforts to attune to the focus of OGP which is to build a strong institution devoid of corruption.
“What is in the pipeline is the digitisation of all revenue generation and collection activities.
”We shall unveil this, in no distant time, in a bid to revamp performances of all revenue heads,” he said.
Earlier, Mrs Abiodun Essiet, OGP’s Focal Person in AMAC, said that the area council was committed to promoting fiscal openness in its engagement with clients.
According to her, this would improve services, manage public resources, promote innovation, create a safer community and improve citizens participation in governance.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that OGP is a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from national and sub-national governments.
This is to promote open government, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
NAN also reports that Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) became a member of Open Government Partnership (OGP) in 2020.
AMAC was the first local government in Nigeria to become a member of OGP.
(NAN)
