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From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Ebonyi State has criticised the state government over its failure to qualify for the World Bank-supported HOPE Governance Programme Performance-Based Incentive Grant.
The CSOs described the development as a major setback for governance, education and primary healthcare in the state.
The coalition, led by the Human Rights Volunteer Corps (HRVC), comprising the Human Rights Action Group and Good Living Initiative (GLI), made its position known in a press statement in Abakaliki.
Speaking on behalf of the coalition, the Chairman of HRVC in Ebonyi State, Prof. Joseph Agbo said the state lost the opportunity to access about $27 million under the World Bank programme after failing to meet key governance and public financial management performance indicators.
According to the coalition, Ebonyi was among the states that failed to qualify for the grant because it did not satisfy conditions relating to fiscal transparency, budget publication, public financial reporting and reforms in the education and primary healthcare sectors.
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The group described the development as particularly unfortunate for a state it said continues to face significant poverty and developmental challenges.
It alleged that Ebonyi failed to publish critical fiscal documents within stipulated timelines, including its budget before the March 31 deadline, citizens’ budgets and other financial reports required for public accountability.
The coalition said while 19 states successfully accessed the World Bank incentive funds, Ebonyi missed out due to what it described as weak institutional governance and poor compliance with transparency requirements.
Presenting what it called findings from its independent investigation, the coalition cited reports by BudgIT, the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), the Ebonyi State Government’s Debt Sustainability Analysis, Premium Times and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR).
According to the group, the reports indicate declining fiscal transparency, incomplete public financial reporting, weak citizen accountability mechanisms, rising public debt, increasing debt servicing obligations, poor capital budget implementation, heavy dependence on federal allocations and procurement risk indicators.
The Ebonyi State Government had yet to respond to the allegations as of the time of filing this report.
