• Harmonising procedures for executing and monitoring approved expenditures through the CMC. • A revenue framework to provide clearer details of revenues collected by all collection agencies in a reporting format that is clear and concise. • A coalition group of civil society and private-sector representatives to monitor independently the implementation of the Economic Reform Programme. • Enhancing the capacity of the office of the auditor general for the federation to ensure more effective synergy with the Public Accountability Committee of the Senate. • A programme of ‘running operational reviews’ of major government spending to determine the operational and financial efficiency and effectiveness of major spending. • The EITI, established to promote transparency in the country’s extractive industry. • Making the public procurement system of the government more open and transparent by establishing the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU) in the presidency. • The Fiscal Responsibility Act is expected to promote fiscal accountability and responsibility by public officers. • A bill establishing a National Assembly Budget Research Office and expected to be enacted to create a Budget Office for the central legislature. It is intended to improve the legislature’s capacity to discharge its fiscal oversight responsibility. • A bill to enact a Budget Act for Nigeria, being considered by the National Assembly. This legislation will regulate budgetary procedures, processes and practices in the country. Public service reform 573. Government started to reform the civil service as part of its general policy reform package. This is designed to ‘downsize’ or ‘rightsize’ the public sector and to redefine its role into one of making the private sector the engine of growth and development. Other aspects of the reforms include monetising certain benefits of civil servants, such as housing and transportation, and outsourcing noncore functions to private service providers. Public service pensions have been reformed and made contributory. A series of innovations have been introduced to the procurement process to make it more transparent and cost effective. Consultation with stakeholders and oversight activities 574. A new culture of extensive consultation with stakeholders has taken root in Nigeria since 1999. It was motivated by government’s desire to include 173