For correspondence:-
Received: October 15, 2020 Accepted: December 20, 2020 Published: December 31, 2020
Citation: Issues in Redistributive Expenditure Management and Income Inequality in Nigeria. Account Tax Rev 2005; 4(4):1-16 doi:
© 2005 The authors.
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Abstract
The debate on the level of social inclusion and income inequality is becoming severeglobally. That social and political crises are on the rise is unarguable and whether this is a product of widening income inequality is a subject of investigation. Therefore, this review is aimed at highlighting the issues in redistributive expenditure management and its role in mitigating income inequality.A review of literature and documents is adopted in exploring how the application of the principles of public expenditure management (PEM) - fiscal discipline, allocative efficiency, and operational efficiency - can be used to assess the commitment of the governments to redistributive spending geared towards empowering the poor and consequently bridge the income inequality gap. Income inequality seems to lack the desired attention in developing countries like Nigeria. Efforts towards making fund available to redistributive expenditures to empower the poor aimedat reducing income inequality appear to be discouraging. Therefore, to improve the situation, fiscal risk, allocative inefficiency, and institutional weakness in the provision of public goods and services in general and social (education and health) goods and services in particular need to be controlled. There seems to be a lack-lustre commitment on the governments in developing countries in providing a sustainable allocation to social goods and services. Additionally, the resources available for education and healthcare financing appear to be adversely affected by corruption. Nevertheless, empirical research is required to know the strength of these relationships in Nigeria.
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