Advocacy News

Transparency and Accountability:

Kaduna LG Councils lock horns over N20 million prize money

Pic: From Left: Director Budget Kaduna North, Mr Andrew Swat, Deputy Director Planning, Budget and Planning Commission, Alhaji Badamasi Musa and CALPED's Head of Governance, Mr Yusuf Goje, exchanging views during the visit

In a renewed move to take governance closer to the grassroots, all the 23 Local Government Councils of Kaduna state are being assessed on the basis of adherence to policy documents, budget planning and preparation process predicated on increasing internally generated revenue (IGR), improved public procurement system and reduced payroll fraud, tracking of absenteeism of primary school teachers and health personnel and the essence of abiding by guidelines of the state to engender transparency and accountability.

Deputy Director Planning in the state's Budget and Planning Commission, Badamasi Musa who led the Budget Assessment team to the Kaduna North Local Government Council of the state during the week, said the move became necessary to give the rural poor a sense of belonging.

While explaining that the Local Government Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability(LFTAS) program was a governance reform initiative of the state being facilitated by the commission and in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government Affairs to deepen accountability and transparency in the state, Musa pointed out that the ultimate goal was to improve and consolidate service delivery in local governance.

"LFTAS has five thematic areas of focus as follows: adherence to policy documents; budget preparation process; increased internally generated revenue(IGR); improve public procurement system tracking absenteeism of primary school teachers and health personnel", Musa disclosed, adding that the initiative "has 24 success factors which will be used to assess and evaluate all the local government councils with a financial reward of twenty million naira to those local councils that are able to achieve all the success factors as the case may be.

In his remarks, the Chairman of Kaduna North Local Council, Alhaji Sale Shauibu expressed delight over the initiative and assured the budget assessment team of his council's cooperation to ensure that the laudable program of the Governor Nasir el-Rufai-led administration was successfully implemented.

The Commission in her bid to ensure citizens' participation in the process had requested the civil society to be part of the assessment visits in each of the local government, thereby mobilizing one civil society focal person in each of the local governments to be supported by the state civil society team for effective and result-driven participation.

On his part, Yusuf Goje, Head, Governance and Advocacy of Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment & Development (CALPED) expressed the readiness of Civil Society to effectively participate and support the LFTAS program in the spirit of Open Government Partnership (OGP).

"Civil society engagement has now changed from confrontation to collaboration towards improved qualitative service delivery and good governance”, Goje stressed, calling on the civil society to take advantage of the LFTAS program initiated by the government to effectively engage and demand for Fiscal transparency, accountability, responsiveness and improved quality of service delivery at the grassroots.

Meanwhile, Kaduna North's Director of Budget, Mr Andrew Swat along with his deputy, Rabiu Isyaku assured the assessment team that the Budget department of the council was in good stead to clinch the prize money at stake in view of the council's "track record of promoting transparency and accountability in the scheme of things"

Comments

Kaduna COVID-19 Lockdown, People Living with Disabilities and Inclusion

Chairman JONAPWD, Abdulaziz Suleiman , (Right) and a colleague (Middle) in a chat with CALPED's Yusuf Goje By SMITH WAYA Before the index case of Corona virus (Covid-19) in Nigeria, the Kaduna state government held a public hearing on the proposed Kaduna state social protection policy, in line with the administration's slogan of putting the people first. The Joint National Associations of Person with Disability(JONAPWD), Kaduna chapter, as the umbrella body for people living disabilities in the State, were invited to present a position paper on their expectations of the new policy. The Disability Community took advantage of the town-hall meeting to appeal to the state government to work assiduously towards reducing poverty and hunger in their household. The Governor, Mallam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, assured them of the state government's commitment in ensuring that no one is left behind especially people living with disabilities. Incidently, as the State governm...

Jema'a Council boss seeks support of civil society on OGP

I n his bid to institutionalize the ongoing local government reforms in Kaduna state especially the principles of Open Government Partnership (OGP), the Chairman of Jema'a Local Government Council has solicited support of civil society in promoting transparency, accountability and improve service delivery that would impact positively on the lives of the people in his local government. Council Chairman, Hon Danjuma Peter Averik, who made this known when he paid a courtesy visit to officials of Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn(PERL/DFID) in their Kaduna office, said his visit became necessary to solicit for partnership against the backdrop of his passionate desire to engender transparency and accountability in his administration. "I am here to seek for collaboration that can help in institutionalizing key local government reforms especially the OGP and Local Government Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (LFTAS) program towards improvin...

Reflecting on Kaduna State's Commitment to Open Budget

By YUSUF GOJE T he present administration of Governor Nasir Ahmed El-rufai, since coming into office in 2015, has initiated a number of reforms. These reforms are aimed at strengthening the State’s public finance management system and improving public service delivery to the residents. The reforms are rooted in key laws such as the Fiscal Responsibility Law, Public Procurement Law, Tax Codification & Consolidation Law, Public Finances Law all in 2016, and Planning & Budget Commission Law in 2017. They provide the mechanism for achieving the developmental and socio-economic aspiration in the State Development Plan (SDP, 2016-2020) through the Sectors Implementation Plan (SIP, 2016-2019) and annual budgets. The high point of these reform initiatives came in 2017 when the State government signed into the Open Government Partnership (OGP). In fact, making it the first subnational in Nigeria to do so and was later elevated as a member of OGP global in 2018. This was follo...

Suspected outbreak of Bird Flu in Kachia

When the going was good... By Dangwa Danjuma A strange disease suspected to be bird flu has been reported in Ankwa, a district in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna state, killing chickens in their hundreds on daily basis in poultries that dot the area. Our correspondent who visited the area during the week reports that chickens are dying daily in droves. Thomas Tambaya, a poultry farmer in Ankwa said of the strange disease: "I have lost count of the chickens I have lost to this strange disease. My household is struggling to sustain the surviving birds now", Tambaya remarked, maintaining that his community can no more make those marginal profits from domestic poultry products as before in the area. Another farmer in the area, told Cubinks that he had to focus more on his layers in far away Gumel, as the locally grown chickens he keeps in Pa chiki are being lost to the strange disease. To aggravate matters in the area af...

Kaduna IDPs cry out over Deplorable Conditions

By DANGWA DANJUMA L ack of basic education, sanitation, healthcare facilities and access to portable water supply have hit Gwagwada, a host community camping over 300 households displaced from fifteen villages in Chikun Local Council of the state. Speaking at the flag off of relief materials distribution for the internally displaced persons (IDPs), the Village Head of Gadani, Mr Bitrus Tsauri disclosed: “Since they arrived, the wells which have been the sure source of water for several households in the community have dried up; the solar powered borehole is only providing drips of water necessitating most residents to seek drinking water from streams. Our two public primary schools and healthcare facility are currently inadequate and may be unsafe, especially with the coronavirus pandemic that Kaduna state is still counting cases”. He confirmed that those who can farm, have been provided land to start over again; there is still the worry however, for those who are unable to farm due t...

Cubinks NEWS

Search This Blog