Akwa Ibom LGAs to Now Have Budget Manual Starting 2023 Courtesy of USAID State2State

 

Starting 2023, Local Government Areas in Akwa Ibom State will now have a budget manual courtesy of technical support given by State2State to the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

 

Budget manual is a compendium of general provisions and procedures relating to budget making to be followed by all offices in the government who are involved in the budgeting exercise and dealing with matters relating to budget as well as management and control of expenditure.

 

 

 

The development was made known by the State Team Lead (STL) of the United States Agency for international Development (USAID) State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (State2State) Activity in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Borve Paago-Imabel during a 3-day intensive residential workshop held from Tuesday December 13 through Thursday December 15, 2022 to develop LGA Oversight plan for service delivery in Akwa Ibom State.

 

 

 

The training involved key officials from the priority LGAs and other government officials across basic education, primary health care, and the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sectors of Akwa Ibom State.

 

 

 

Represented by Dr. Iboro Nelson, the State Team Lead (STL) said just like State2State had assisted the Government of Akwa Ibom State to develop a budget Calendar and Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, State2State has not left the local government behind by recently giving technical support to the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to develop a budget manual for the local government areas of Akwa Ibom State.

 

 

 

The STL said the local government budget manual will commence operation in 2023 thus making Akwa Ibom State to be among the few states that will have a budget manual for local government in Nigeria.

 

 

 

 

State2State which also supported seven select local government councils of Uyo, Itu, Ibesikpo-Asutan, Obot Akara, Oron, Ikono and Onna in Akwa Ibom State to develop an annual oversight plan on key service areas said implementation of the annual oversight plan will commence in 2023.

 

 

Borve Paago-Imabel said that an Annual Oversight Plan is designed to help the select LGAs develop and set service delivery targets and coverage across Primary Health Care, Basic Education, and Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) including the monitoring of programs, plans, policies, and procedures, as well as establish Oversight Committee for effective coordination of service delivery in these areas.

 

 

 

The STL explained that the oversight plan will contain service delivery outcomes, targets, indicators, means of verifications and persons responsible, among others to provide strategic monitoring and implementation approaches for policies, plans, processes, and procedures for local governance.

 

 

 

Offering insight to why the Annual Oversight plan is important, Paago-Imabel explained that due to the high attention given to governance at the national level at the detriment of the subnational, service delivery in key sectors have been neglected whereas governance at the subnational level affects the people most.

 

 

 

He said “Although people give more attention to the national, research has shown that the government at the subnational is the one that affects the people more. In State2State, our attention is more at the subnational.

 

 

 

” We always try to see how to breach the gap between the citizens and the government. We try to see how we can reduce the barest minimum conflict situations in service delivery.”

 

 

 

The State Team Lead used the occasion to note some of the successes of State2State Activity in Akwa Ibom State to include helping the State have a Medium-Term Expenditure framework and Budget Calendar.

 

 

 

 

Also speaking the Permanent Secretary, Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Ini Ikie thanked State2State for the several technical support they have given the State.

 

 

 

Represented by a Director in the Ministry, Mrs. Ime Akpan, the Permanent Secretary pointed out that the support has improved service delivery in the key areas of basic education, primary health and WASH.

 

 

 

While noting that the annual oversight plan will transform the 31 LGAs of Akwa Ibom State when implemented, the Permanent Secretary assured that the government of Akwa Ibom State is rightly disposed to welcome new ideas and put in effort implement the ideas so as to act in line with global best practice for the development of the grassroots.

 

 

Meanwhile, the workshop witnessed the inauguration of an annual oversight committee consisting of the council chairmen of the seven local government areas, heads/ directors of the service delivery sectors of health, education, WASH, social development, planning, research and statistics among others.

 

 

 

State2State Activity is a five-year governance project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It aims to increase the efficiency of subnational government (state and local government) operations by strengthening governance systems, especially public financial management (PFM) and procurement, as well as monitoring and evaluation to enable the delivery of services in the key sectors of Basic Education, Primary Health Care and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH). The core components of the State2State project include budget planning, implementation, and execution; budget transparency, domestic resource mobilization, procurement reforms, internal controls, auditing, monitoring and evaluation, gender, and civil society/community oversight.