FG budget support fund: Group tasks Akwa Ibom Assembly

The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has been urged to monitor closely how the state government spends its share of the federal government’s 90 billion naira Budget Support Fund to states, and to make such findings available to citizens. The call was made, Friday, during an advocacy visit by Policy Alert, an Uyo-based non-governmental organization, to the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Onofiok Luke. 

Policy Alert’s Head of Programmes, Tijah Bolton-Akpan said that the federal government’s Fiscal Sustainability Plan for states, if adhered to strictly, has the potential to lift states out of their current fiscal challenges and called on the House to give expedited attention to the Public Procurement and Fiscal Responsibility Bills which will soon be sent by the State Governor to the Assembly for consideration.

He also commended the leader of the legislature and his colleagues on the practice of holding public hearings on the appropriation bill but urged them to ensure that the legislative consultations on the 2017 budget is devolved to the constituency level. The group also asked the lawmakers to make the 2017 executive budget proposal available online ahead of the Public Hearing to ensure more effective inputs by citizens and called for a stronger oversight and more citizens’ engagement by the Public Accounts Committee.

In his response, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Onofiok Luke expressed his commitment to ensuring that the legislative engagement on the 2017 budget of the state is marked by increased transparency, accountability and citizens’ participation. He reassured citizens of the state that the House would not relent in its oversight function over the spending of the Budget Support facility. 

The Speaker informed the group that the House was already working with the State Budget Office and the Executive Council chambers to ensure seamless transmission of future executive budget proposals in a format that can be more useful to citizens. 

Luke noted that Akwa Ibom State is already way ahead of several others in budgeting best practices, such as the online availability of the state budget and the adoption of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) which has made the budget a less difficult document for interested members of the public to analyze. 

He commended Policy Alert for its vigilance in monitoring fiscal governance processes in the state and urged the group to remain consistent in its engagement, while expressing the readiness of the House to engage with other civil society groups towards improving governance and development of the state. 

He however used the opportunity to call on the federal government to pay up the state’s outstanding earnings from the thirteen percent derivation for the last two months, as this would go a long way towards addressing the current fiscal challenges of the state.