From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Delta State Government has earned four awards from the World Bank for fiscal transparency.
They were won under the bank’s States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability,and Sustainability (SFTAS).
The awards are Excellent Performance on Fiscal Transparency and Accountability, Very Good Performances on Efficiency of Public Expenditure, Overall Performance in SFTAS and Debt Sustainability.
The awards were earned due to reforms which impacted positively on the state’s fiscal transparency and accountability in public resource management.
Receiving the awards, yesterday, in Asaba, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, said the development was a positive testimony to his administration’s prudent fiscal and transparent governance profile.
Okowa commended members of the SFTAS Implementation Committee in the state for their hard work which led to the states’s excellent performance.
“I thank God and the team that has been working on the SFTAS programme in the last four years. I truly feel happy with the awards that we have received as a state. It just goes to confirm that we have tried our best in the course of governance in our state. We have also relied on the internal team in government in the course of these four years. It shows that we have built capacity in the public service of Delta State. There is no doubt that we need to continue to improve. But, the truth is that there is capacity built already in the public service and the more we are able to utilise the resource available for us, the better for us for growth and development in the state.We have been told that there was 13 result areas and we have done well in all. But, we have gotten awards in four areas. I must congratulate the team that has been in-charge,” he said.
The governor expressed optimism that the incoming administration would leverage on the achievements recorded in fiscal transparency and accountability, and continue to work for the overall good of the state.
Okowa said his administration had been very prudent in managing the state’s resources to the extent that Delta and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) alone recorded very infinitesimal increase in debts while many other states more than doubled their debt stocks.
Commissioner for Finance, Fidelis Tilije, had explained that SFTAS was a World Bank programme established in 2018 to encourage and motivate sub-national governments towards improvement of their public finance management systems, processes and institutions aimed at strengthening fiscal transparency to build trust in government, facilitate accountability in public resource management and ensure sustainability in the participating states.