Bayelsa, Imo, Two Others Miss Out Of Fresh N123.35bn Performance Grants For States

For their failure to publish online, approved annual budgets and audited financial statements within a specific time-frame, the quartet of Bayelsa, Imo, Rivers and Zamfara States have missed out from the latest N123.348 billion performance-based grants distributed among states in the federation.

This latest disbursement brought to N233 billion, that has so far been disbursed to the States under the $750 million World Bank-Assisted States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme-for-Results from the first disbursement in April 2020.

The four states got zero allocation owing to default on the 2019 eligibility criteria under the SFTAS Programme for Results.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, announced after the conclusion of the 2019 Annual Performance Assessment (APA) that was undertaken by the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF) who is the Independent Verification Agent (IVA) and approved by the Programme Coordination Unit (PCU) of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.

The PCU approved 32 states for the disbursement that included N91.048 billion (USD239.6 million) of the 2019 performance-based grants after satisfying various Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) as fiscal transparency, accountability, expenditure efficiency, revenue mobilization and debt sustainability.

Sokoto state received N6.612 billion, the largest amount of the grants based on the number of results achieved, while Kano State got the lowest amount of N1.710 billion.

The 2019 APA results is a significant improvement on the 2018 APA assessment during which only 24 states got N43.416 billion having achieved demonstrable progress on fiscal reforms met the criteria for the disbursement.

It would be recalled that Anambra and Zamfara missed out of the second tranche of N32.3 billion performance grants that were disbursed last November for the new COVID-19 response DLI which criteria include implementation of a tax compliance relief programme for individual tax payers and businesses by State by 30 September. Only 34 states benefitted from these grants.

The current disbursement of N66.5 billion under another new COVID-19 response DLI is from the Amended COVID-19 Responsive 2020 Budget by 31 July 2020 of which 35 states were beneficiaries.

Mrs. Ahmed reiterated that the World Bank-assisted SFTAS Programme is principally meant to strengthen fiscal management at the state level so as to ensure effective mobilisation and utilisation of financial resources to the benefit of their citizens in a transparent, accountable and sustainable manner, thereby reducing fiscal risks and encouraging a common set of fiscally responsible behaviours.

She noted that the SFTAS programme could not have come at a better time, given the dwindling government revenue occasioned by oil price volatility and coupled with the current impact of COVID-19 which has further intensified the need for improved practices in fiscal transparency, accountability and sustainability as enunciated in the SFTAS ideals.

The Minister stressed that with the disbursement of the total sum of N233.264 billion (USD620.2 million)since the beginning of the Programme for Results, “we have thus far successfully adapted and implemented the SFTAS Programme to provide timely support to States with a view to strengthening their fiscal capacity for responding to numerous fiscal challenges in their respective domains.”

“The increase in the number of benefitting States and results achieved is indicative of the wider acceptance of SFTAS ideals by all States of the Federation and this would herald a new era of transparency and accountability in fiscal governance at the sub-national level”.