Ebonyi Budget Review: Huge govt expenditures not reflecting on budget performance statistics – Coalition of CSOs 

A group of civil society organizations under the umbrella of Green-the-Red Cluster has admonished Ebonyi State Government to always prioritize items in the budget for all expenditures in the state.

 

The group observed that although the present administration in the state may have done a lot, especially in the social sector, such expenditures are not reflected in the capital budget performance statistics.

 

The group made the call Monday in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital while briefing journalists on its findings on the 2024 published 3rd quarter state budget performance.

 

Leader of the group, Oliver Chima Ajah, during the briefing observed that the state has consistently recorded poor documented budget performance over the years especially in the social sectors of health, education as well as Water, Sanitation and hygiene, WASH.

 

He admonished the government to always draw all social sector related expenditures from the approved budget so as to make them count for the state in the published budget performance rating.

 

Ajah, also the Executive Director of the Cluster lead organisation, Development and Integrity Intervention Goal (DIG) Foundation regretted that Ebonyi state government was yet to fulfil the 2001 Abuja declaration of allocating 15% budget to health sector over the years, and never reached United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s recommendation of 26% budgetary allocation to education sector.

 

Ajah stated: “Again, capital Budget performance over the years have been poor across social sectors.

 

“For instance in 2022, the Ministry of health achieved only 0.2% annual capital budget releases while Ebony State Primary Healthcare Development Agency and others had 0% capital budget performances in 2022.

 

“As at September 2024 Ministry of Health has 5.6%, EBSHIA 8.8%, while EBSPHCDA and others recorded 0% performance.

 

“This shows that, none of the health sector MDAs has a pass mark as each MDA is supposed to achieve at least 75% by the third quarter and 100% by December 2024.

 

“We recognize and commend the Government for all ongoing projects.

 

“However, such spending should be traceable to budget before it can be counted as performance for the state.”

 

He called on the media to be more committed to supporting the achievement of the Green-the-Red project objectives in their reportage, stressing that capital budget is the major budgetary aspect from which the common people benefit.

 

Others who spoke included the DIG Advisor, Emma Abah and a Development consultant and State Coordinator, USAID Health Workforce Management, Ibiam Azu Agwu, commended Governor Nwifuru for his many Interventions in the health, education and many other sectors.

 

They stressed that the essence of the briefing was not to discredit the government but to draw its attention and those of all stakeholders to the need to jointly work towards improving the documented budget performance statistics of the state to represent actual sectoral expenditures.

 

Agwu emphasized: “Are we saying the Governor is not doing well? No, that’s not what we are saying here.

 

“The Governor is doing very well: he has revamped V be Health system in so many ways, but we are saying that going through the dashboard in the state website, there is a lot of gaps in the budget spending.

 

“May be the government will have to reconsider again, developing a realistic fundable budget, and ensure that the Ministries allign whatever they are doing with the policy thrust of government.

 

“There is also the very important need to build capacities of MDAs on effective memo writing to facilitate approvals and budget releases.”

 

The Green-the-Red Cluster is made up of eight civil society organizations, DIG Foundation, Abraham’s Children Foundation, Da’Wah and Guidance Bureau of Nigeria, Faith Community Counselling Organization, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Centre, Methodist Care Ministry, Technology for Transformative Development Foundation and Ohinya Global Resources, all members of Ebonyi Civil Society Network otherwise known as Ebonyi Civil society Situation Room.

 

Their mission is to advocate for increased budget performance so as to achieve the transformation of the statistical reds signifying poor performance to green which represents credible performance of the budget.