Skip to main content

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

Popular posts from this blog

Open Budget: Kaduna seeks citizens' input in 2020 Budget

F ollowing sustained campaign by concerned citizens and critical stakeholders in Kaduna state to open up the budget cycle, the Governor el-Rufa'i-led administration, during the week, engaged the representatives of the academia, community-based organizations, the civil society, women groups and individuals on state's 2020 to 2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework(MTEF) to make next year's budget budget realistic and realizable. The event tagged 'Citizens Consultations on 2020-2022 MTEF' which was put together by the state's Planning and Budget Commission with the support of DFID-funded Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), took a critical look at strategies to forge a people-centered budget with emphasis on transparency, openness and accountability. Co-chair of the Open Government Partnership(OGP) in the state, Alhaji Mustapha Jumare told participants that as a sub national, Kaduna state was indeed a trail brazer in nation's quest ...

Coalition cautions against Nigeria's Disunity

  N etwork for Better Nigeria, a coalition of concerned Civil Society Organizations in the 19 Northern States has responded to  the growing tension threatening national unity and socio-economic development of the country and called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently collaborate with the governors in the 19 northern states and critical stakeholders to arrest the lingering insecurity in Nigeria. In a joint statement signed by Mallam Isiaku Abdulhameed, the coalition in collaboration with Arewa Youth Consultative Youth Movement, Arewa Youth Assembly and Chanchanta stated inter Alia:  "the Federal Government should urgently collaborate with the Northern State Governors and come up with a modernistic livestock development policy which will not only provide solutions to the herders/farmers crises but transform the age long traditional open grazing towards providing additional economic value for pastoral communities. Equally, we wish to express our support on the position...

Expert advocates for prudence and and accountability in Treasury Management

                                                                   By EDDY OCHIGBO L ack of efficient and prudent treasury management in the country have been identified as the source of fraud and sharp practices in nation's public and private sector. Dropping the hint during a breakfast meeting with Correspondents in Kaduna during the week, the Registrar and Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Treasury Management of Nigeria, Mr Adedoyin Olumide, reiterated that poor treasury management remains the bane of public and private finance utilization in the country, calling for greater synergy among all professionals in accounting, banking and finance. He disclosed tha...

Environmentalists re-strategize on governance

A cross-section of environmental strategists at the event Lack of good and well-intentioned environmental governance and social audit for effective monitoring and evaluation of data and procurement have been identified as the major impediment against the climate change campaign in Kaduna state. A leading member of Network of Civil Societies in Environment, Gloria Kasang Bulus, who made this known during a one-day capacity building platform for critical stakeholders working around environment - strengthening the technical working groups; to develop or use tools required for effective engagement with government, urged participants to volunteer wholeheartedly in the task ahead - to mitigate climate change. Bulus who is also the Director, Bridge that Gap Initiative and convener of the network noted that, "Unless and until we are able to partner the government in ensuring outcomes in tandem with the people oriented policies, plans, appropriations; we will be doing next...

KADUNA LOCAL GOVERNMENT POLLS: Why Voters may be Disenfranchised

An Election Officer Training Supervisors for the exercise  A Kaduna-based civil society organization, Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment and Development (CALPED), has vowed to watch out for under-aged voters and thugs in tomorrow's Local Government polls and hand them over to security agents. Convener of the coalition, Mr Yusuf Goje told Cubinks in an interview that as part of its social responsibility, CALPED had decided to team up with other civil society organizations "to own the electoral process by ensuring that it is hitch free and credible. "As part of our contribution to the democratic process, we are duty bound to join other stakeholders by making sure the right thing is done and by so doing democracy would deepen and Nigeria would be better off", Goje said, advising that all hands should be on deck to fish out thugs and under aged voters not only in tomorrow's local government polls but in subsequent...