By Joseph Edegbo :
Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), has tasked Civil society groups and other stakeholders in Kaduna, Northwest Nigeria to prioritize tracking of resources allocated in the 2022 budget for MDAs to ensure appropriate implementation.
The State team Lead of PERL, Funded by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office(FCDO), UK, Mr. Abel Adejor made the call at a one day Postmortem session with Various Accountability Mechanisms group in Kaduna.
Adejor said , it is not enough to get the budget approved, but implementation is the utmost He therefore, called on the various Accountability mechanisms not to over protect their turf, but seek collaboration among themselves.
He identified lack of tracking as the main problem facing releases and Cash backing of budget, noting budget tracking is not a witch-hunt exercise, but to promote transparency and accountability in governance.
In her remarks, Co-Chair, Citizens, Open Government Partnership (OGP), Hadiza Umar, commended the citizens input in the 2022 approved budget, saying, CSOs have demonstrated that they are there to serve the citizens of Kaduna State.
She stressed the importance of collaboration between the CSOs and the government through qualitative engagement.
Umar, described appropriating money as a step towards addressing the nation’s citizens challenge and that the release and how it was utilized would determine if actually CSOs could curtail the menace of poverty and underdevelopment.
Presenting the report of the 2022 Budget as it affects the health sector, Secretary of the Kaduna Maternal Accountable Mechanism(KADMAM), Comrade Bako Abdul said N41billion was approved for the health sector in the 2022 Budget.
He explained that N12.34b is for the recurrent and N28.648 for Capital.
Similarly, the Secretary of the Kaduna Social protection Accountability Mechanism (KADSPAC), Philip Yatai said, a total of N29.9 billion, representing 10.7% of the total budget is for Social Protections which is multi sectoral.
He therefore said the only way to ensure that the Social Protection budget become realistic , is to follow up the amount released to ensure it meets the intended goals.
In the same vein, Cordinator, Civil Society, Scalling Up Nutrition (CS-SUN), Jessica Bartholomew said both Specific and Sensitive Nutrition interventions in Kaduna state are N9.8B and Capital budget is N184.5m.
She informed the gathering the need to track the Nutrition budget in the 23 Local Government Areas.
Speaking on the objectives of the meeting, Secretary, Open Government Partnership (OGP), Mr. Joshua James said, the meeting is to assess citizens influence in the 2022 approved budget as presented by Accountability mechanisms.
He added that it is also to enhance Civil society and the media partner capacity to effectively engage government with findings from postmortem and to generate next steps and strategy for tracking 2022 budget implementation as well as advocacy to improve releases for sectors.
Source; Procyonnews