Ebonyi State Lawmakers, Government Ministries and Agencies, Civil Society Organizations and other stakeholders have commended the impressive mid year performances in the State budget. They attributed the timely releases of funds to MDAs for budget implementation on the political will of the governor and sustained advocacy by CSOs in the State.
Speaking at the 2024 mid year budget performances review held recently in Abakaliki, the Stakeholders thanked the State Governor, Rt. Hon Francis Nwifuru for timely approval of memos and fund releases which led to improvement in the 2024 State's second quarter budget performance.
In his welcome remarks, the Executive Director of DIG Foundation, Mr Oliver Aja Chima Aja said the mid year budget performances review was organized by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room in partnership with Development and Integrity Intervention Goal, DIG Foundation, with support from the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He noted that it was aimed at offering Heads of MDAs the opportunity to interact with the House of Assembly Committee on Public Account and others on issues affecting them, discuss issues around Budget releases to social sector MDAs as well as address accountability and poor performance issues through Legislative oversight functions.
Mr. Oliver Aja who also Presented the 2nd quarter budget performance report as published by the State government, observed that there were still much gaps in capital budget performance data for most MDAs, especially for Agencies under the Ministries.
On capital budget for health, he observed that the Ministry of Health improved in their performance and got fund release of N122m in the 2nd quarter as against N9m of 1st quarter. He however regretted that apart from the Ebonyi State Health Insurance Agency which received N41,164,312.70 in the 1st quarter representing only 9% of its capital budget of N470m, no other Agency from the publication, under health, including the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency has received anything from their capital budgets.
On their part, the State House of Assembly Committee chairman on Public Account, Hon. Godwin Abiri and his Health counterpart, Hon. Mrs. Esther Agwu, commended Governor Nwifuru for following the State budget in his administration. They also appreciated DIG Foundation and their partners for their campaign, which has continued to bring to the fore germane issues surrounding the budget and public expenditure of the State.
The lawmakers noted that the several advocacy have yielded much results and pledged to employ their oversights, in partnership with civil society Organizations to catalyse further improvements for the good of the State.
Discussions at the review meeting focused mainly on the current status of fund releases to MDAs with particular reference to key social sectors which include: Health, Education as well as water, sanitation and hygiene, WASH.
Speaking under the health sector, the representatives of the State College of Health Sciences and Technology, Ngbo in Ohaukwu local government area, Daniel Itumo and his counterpart of the College of Nursing and Midwifery in Uburu, Ohaozara, Sampson Okoro said the Governor has brought a lot of relief to the institutions which were grossly starved of fund before now.
He explained that his institution since 2007 it was established have not accessed any fund from their budget except under Governor Nwifuru who recently released the sum of N27m to them. He noted that the sum helped them so much in their pursuit for accreditation and expressed optimism that more funds would be released to them soonest.
"We were not getting anything before even when we apply. Today, the Governor has brought a very big relief to us, especially with prompt response.
"Out of the N15m recurrent budget approved for us, we have already accessed N5m as the Governor has made it statutory that we would be receiving N1m every month as overhead.
"Also, out of N150m approved capital budget, we have accessed N16m so far which we have used judiciously."
Speaking under Education, the Director, Planning, Research and Statistics in the Ministry, Emmanuel Agbafor, explained that out of their total approved capital budget of over N8.1 billion, the Governor has approved the release of over N 6.7 billion, part of the fund for the establishment of 39 Model schools across the State, 3 per local government area at N172m each.
He added that the sum of over N14.3 m have also been released for schools rehabilitation.
Mrs Mary Akam, the Head, Planning, Research and Statistics in the Ministry of Water Resources also said that, out of the Ministry's approved budget of N1.3 billion, it accessed over N613m in first quarter of 2024.
She added that the Governor has also released the sum of over N490m and over N498m respectively, for the ongoing Ivo water scheme and the rehabilitation of the old Abakaliki water scheme.
Akam also noted that the approved budget of N200m for the Ebonyi State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency has been released 100 percent.
"So far so good, we have been having favour from the Governor. In this second quarter, things have tremendously changed for good."
Others who spoke, including the Executive Secretary, State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr.Philip Ovuoba and the representative of Ebonyi State Health Insurance Agency, said a lot of improved performance have been brought into their Agencies, and attributed them to the political will of the Governor and the results of the campaigns by DIG Foundation and other Civil Society Organizations in the State.
Meanwhile, some participants believed that some releases must have been made after compilation of data for the quarter.
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