Niger: The Court of Auditors and the "Citoyennetés" Laboratory join forces for the accountability of local authorities

The Court of Accounts of Niger and the "Citizenship" Laboratory signed on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 in Niamey, a partnership agreement as part of the implementation of the 2nd phase (April 2021 to December 2025) of the Support Program for Local Authorities (PACT) of the regions of Dosso and Maradi that the said Laboratory (ACE-RECIT) is implementing, with funding from the Swiss Cooperation (SDC).

It is the first president of the Court of Accounts, Pr Oumarou Narey, and the representative of the Laboratory, Mr. Laogo Antoine Sawadogo, who affixed their signatures on the document of this agreement.

After signing, the first president of the Court of Auditors indicated that his Institution (in charge of public finance control) has approached the managers of this Laboratory in order to officials of this Laboratory in order to exchange with them on the practical modalities to support the processes of accountability in the area of intervention of PACT.

From these exchanges, he said, it emerged that one of the challenges to be met is the preparation and transmission to the Court in time of administrative and management accounts by local authorities.

Indeed, according to Pr Oumarou Narey, in 2020, only 9 partner municipalities out of 35 (i.e. 26%) of the Citizenship Laboratory program have prepared and transmitted their accounts to the Court of Accounts.

"It is for this reason that the Citizenship Laboratory has exploited the Strategic Plan (2020-2024) of the Court of Accounts to identify activities that are in line with its 2021 planning," he explained.

While facilitating this happy initiative whose consecration intervened following the elaboration and the amendment of a draft framework convention for the year 2021, the first president of the Court of Accounts, Mr. M. Kouchner, said that theThe first president of the Court of Auditors stressed that the president and the members of the team of the Laboratory were right in approaching the Court of Auditors in order to support political accountability through local governance.

Finally, Prof. Oumarou Narey thanked the Swiss Cooperation (SDC) which financed not only the first phase which involved 37 local authorities (11 in the Dosso region and 26 in the Maradi region), but also the second phase which involved the second phase which involved the third phase.He also thanked the Swiss Cooperation (SDC) which financed not only the first phase which concerned 37 local authorities (11 in Dosso region and 26 in Maradi region), but also the second phase which covers all the 90 local authorities of the two (2) regions (43 communes of Dosso, 45 communes of Maradi and the 2 regional councils).

For his part, the CEO of Laboratoire Citoyennetés, Mr. Laogo Antoine Sawadogo, first pointed out that Niger is the first country that has taken this accountability seriously, before hoping that the example of Niger will be cited in countries where the Citizenship Laboratory intervenes.

As for the Representative of the Swiss Cooperation, Mrs. Zina Omar Mamane, she was delighted with this first experience in the sub-region.

Source: www.anp.ne