The Kaduna state government has disbursed N152.4 million to the 23 local government areas of the state as performance grant for Local Government Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (LFTAS) Programme.
The Commissioner, Planning and Budget Commission, Muhammad Sani Abdullahi Dattijo, while disbursing the grants in Kaduna after the 14th economic planning board meeting which he chaired, explained that the LFTAS programme was introduced by the state cabinet in June 2018 as a reform initiative to strengthen fiscal performance and sustainability at local government level.
“The programme will strengthen intergovernmental fiscal coordination by supporting good practice on fiscal behavior and standards across the local government council. It will reduce fiscal risk to the state government in the long run, help in efficient implementation of development plans and policies and increase community participation in governance.
He said the programme focuses on five thematic areas on Disbursement Link Indicators (DLIs), namely budget preparation process, adherence to policy documents, strengthened internally generated revenue, improving public procurement systems and reducing payroll fraud, and tackling absenteeism and nonchallant attitude of primary school teachers and health personnel.
The Commissioner said after verification of the local government performance by an independent agent, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), Zaria, Jema’a and Kaduna South local councils emerged the best three performing councils.
He said the councils got the FTAS incentives of N9.94 million, N9.27 million, and N9.26 million respectively, while the remaining 20 councils got between N3.49 million and N8.75 million each.
He said based on impressive performance in the first phase, the government would consider increasing the incentive to between N100 million and N200 million in the future, while adding that the increment would be subject to the improved performance of the LGCs in entrenching fiscal transparency, accountability, and sustainability in council’s administration.
Citizen’s Co-Chair, Open Government Partnership, Mrs Hadiza Umar, who was represented by her Co-Chair, Mr Muhammad Kassim, commended the Planning and Budget Commission for the efforts to strengthen transparency and accountability in local government governance.
He said OGP would continue to support all reforms geared towards improving transparency and citizen engagement in governance.
Mr Yusuf Goje of Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment & Development, lauded Kaduna state government for disbursing the grant after waiting for several years.
He assured that civil society would continue to collaborate with government and would track the utilisation for sustainability of the programme, having seen its benefits for people at the grassroots.
He called for timely disbursement of the grant.