KWARA 2021 BUDGET IS BETTER THAN BEFORE – ENetSuD

• Urges Kwara Government to make 2022 budget more explicit

The Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), a Kwara-based Civil Society Organization known for its #FollowKwaraMoney activities, has noted the improvement in the preparation of the Kwara State 2021 Budget. ENetSuD observed that the signed 2021 budget made available to the members of the public is more transparent and detailed than the previous years’ budgets.

ENetSuD Coordinator (Dr. Alagbonsi Abdullateef) disclosed that some new transparency features like a basic Geographical Information, Local Governments where projects will be domiciled, names of some projects, and the amount budgeted for specific projects, among others, were written for the first time (for some projects) in the 2021 budget available in the public domain.

“Of interest to ENetSuD are the clear explanations and breakdown of the amounts appropriated for some capital projects, which now make it easier for independent tracking of those projects. For instance, the amounts to settle the contractual obligations for many projects were clearly indicated as follow: Comprehensive Renovation and Construction of Additional Facilities in Government High School Ilorin Lot 1 (₦80,005,484.84); GHS Lot 2 Ilorin (₦73,784,783.08); Government Unity Secondary School, Kaiama (₦106,925,435.19); Oro Grammar School, Ilorin (₦81,895,675.54); Offa Grammar School, Offa (₦93,834,003.04); GSS Lafiagi (₦29,615,708.00); GSS Share (₦21,161,857.00); Patigi secondary School, Patigi (₦4,829,638.3), just to mention a few”, ENetSuD noted.

While also insisting that the KWSG’s 2021 budget is not near perfection, ENetSuD admits that the current template used by the Kwara State Government (KWSG) and approved by the State House of Assembly (KWHA) is promising and should be sustained with a substantial improvement in the 2022 budget. It is our hope that the KWSG’s 2022 budget will be very explicit to the extent that all amounts budgeted for capital projects will have a clear breakdown of the purposes, amounts, and locations. ENetSuD invites the KWSG and the KWHA to jointly understudy the template of the Federal Government (FG)’s budgets and learn some ways to make subsequent Kwara State budget look not only similar to, but also better than, the FG’s budget (which is not also perfect).

Lastly, ENetSuD urges the KWHA to open Kwara for citizens by passing the pending Freedom of Information (FOI) bill into law to enable Kwarans to have unhindered access to information on how the public fund is spent. ENetSuD added that Transparency, Accountability and Probity are far beyond publishing budgets and financial statements of the government.

Signed,
Usman Radhiyyat Taiye (Mrs),
Deputy Coordinator (Administration),
Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD),
30/01/2021