From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
A Civil Society Organisation, which promotes fiscal and ecological justice in the Niger Delta region, Policy Alert has given accolades to the government of Ondo State for prioritising critical sectors in the state budget implementation during the third quarter of 2023.
In a statement signed by its Programme Officer, Fiscal Reforms and Anti-Corruption, Faith Paulinus, the organisation noted that of the nine Niger Delta States, Ondo State tops the chart for prioritising key human development sectors such as health, education, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and agriculture.
The group noted that the capital releases for the education sector accounted for N779m with N725 million disbursed for State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Health N756 million, WASH N96.3m and Agriculture N1.45bn.
“We are impressed that attention was given to these key development sectors in capital expenditure as the social sector alone recorded a release of N2.7bn, 73 percent higher than the administrative sector which had a total release of N1.56bn”, the statement noted.
Policy Alert said that although the spending priority of the government as regards capital release is commendable, the government needs to prioritise its capital spending above the recurrent budget.
“A review of the expenditure pattern, showed that out of the N48.21bn spent during the quarter, a total of N33.33bn went to recurrent expenditure while Capital expenditure had N14.88bn. This implies that what was spent for the cost of governance was 124 percent higher than the capital expenditure. This is not a healthy approach to public expenditure management for any society that wants to grow.”
Policy Alert further queried the N719.36m foreign loan taken by the State Government within the period stressing that it is doubtful the loan got the approval of the State Assembly.
“We could not find any records or reports indicating that the request and subsequent approval for this loan was ever discussed at plenary by the State House of Assembly. Taking loans without the approval of the State House of Assembly is illegal and a gross affront on the powers of the House of Assembly. We call on the Executive to stop this negative trend and the Ondo State House of Assembly to live up to its oversight responsibility,” Athe group added.