Sikirat Shehu
In order to strengthen the capacity of citizens and ensure efficient budget implementation for people to have value for money; Grassroots Development, Monitoring and Advocacy Centre has engaged stalk holders on their rights to challenge and hold government accountable.
Delivering his speech at one day workshop tagged ‘Strengthening Citizens Oversight of Public Expenditure Management for Civil Society and other Stalk holders in Kwara State, Mr Tunde Salman Jimoh, the group Director explained that the training was borne out of maximizing social responsibility and accountability for improved subnational government fiscal transparency in Nigeria.
“Budget execution is expected to transform into improved service delivery and provision of public goods. This is not happening as expected due to leakages through procurement fraud or corruption complicated in poor project implementation.
“Our objective is to increase the number of Civil Society of Nigeria (CSOs), effective utilization of citizens oversight tools to achieve value for money, reduce corruption risk and improve service delivery from every naira of Kwara State money spent through public expenditure,” he said.
Also speaking, Dr. Abdulrahman Abdulbaki, General Manager, Kwara State Public Procurement Agency, enlightened participants on ‘Strengthening Transparency, Accountability, and Probity in Kwara State Procurement Reform and E-Procurement System: The Role of Citizens Group.
Abdulbaki said the agency, was established to address fraud, corruption, and other abnormalities in governance and bring about transparency and accountability.
The general manager, informed that the agency has being doing the needful; having put in place law for accountability and that have shifted from manual to digital operations to ensure effective performance. He called for support from Kwarans with a vow that government will not disappoint them.
In his submission, Dr. Aminu Yaru, a lecturer at the Department of Economic, University of Ilorin, who discussed the topic ‘Building Citizens Oversight Capacity to Improve Transparency and Accountability in Kwara State Fiscal governance Ecosystem Beyond World Bank Conditions.
Yaru pointed out that citizens have to be adequately informed and knowledgeable about budget implementation, he suggested that CSOs and other relevant stalk holders should acquire technical knowledge, combine aggressive with common sense, be competent, fair, and participate in budget discourse to speak for ordinary citizens to entrench good governance and a better society.