As the year 2021 is in its last quarter thereby paving the way for assessment of its performance, Stakeholders from the Gombe South zone of Gombe State who are mostly comprising rural dwellers have met with civil society organisations and officials of the state Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in order to appraise the performance of the year 2021 budget.
The meeting was organized by the Responsible Citizenship and Human Development Initiative (ReCHDI), in collaboration with the Gombe State Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
In a remark, Mohammed Kulani, Director Final Account Unit, Treasury House Gombe, said that there was a total expenditure of 25.6per cent, representing N26.9 billion, less than the budgeted amount of N107.6 billion.
Represented by Musa Mahdi, Mohammed Kulani said that there was “77 per cent aggregate revenue performance of the budgeted N126.44 billion naira, with a shortfall of 28.9 billion from both the federation revenue account and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), within a 75- 80 per cent performance.”
According to him, the state had a closing balance of N14.8 billion due to anticipated receipt for state Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) grants in the final month of the year.
He said, “Capital expenditure took the major part of the expenditure shortfall, with the performance of less than 60per cent.
“Much of the recurrent expenditure in 2020 was obligatory, based on revenue shortfall. Capital expenditure was largely focused on completing ongoing projects, with very few projects started.”
The summary of the Citizens Accountability Report (CAR) revealed that health and education sectors enjoyed the highest proportion of recurrent expenditure, while works and education received the highest proportion of capital expenditure.
Director, Budget, Planning and Development Partners Coordination Office, Abubakar Dauda Gaddam, who was represented by Hassan Abdu, Chief Budget Officer, while going through the objectives of the Citizens’ Accountability Report, said it fosters understanding around the business of governance.
Dauda Gaddam stressed that “It contributes to the effort of increasing government accountability on how it manages public money as well as to foster understanding of how public funds are utilized, especially if the information is presented in an accessible format.”
The participants were later divided into their various Local Government Areas where they made their imputes for priority areas during the 2022 budget.
It was gathered that most of what the rural dwellers wanted, was on improving the agricultural sector to make room for more farming activities in a more accommodating way.
Gombe South comprises Balanga, Billiri, Kaltungo and Shongom Local Government Areas and the rural dwellers were brought to appraise the 2020 citizens accountability report, as well as make, imputes of what they expect to be implemented for them the budget of the year 2022.
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