Civil society groups in Ebonyi State have raised concerns over the poor performance of the Ebonyi 2022 State budget so far.
The concern was part of outcome of the second quarter budget performance report review meeting held Wednesday in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital.
The meeting was organized by Development and Integrity Intervention Goals Foundation, a Civil Society Organisation, with support from the USAID- funded State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (State2State) activity.
Analysing the budget performance report as released by the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability Program (SFTAS), the Executive Director of DIG Foundation, Oliver Ajah Chima, observed that most Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), with focus on Health, Education, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) have not received any fund from their 2022 approved capital expenditure budget.
He however, noted that for some Ministries where releases were made, over 50 per cent of the total allocated capital fund were channelled to only one specific project while excluding many others.
Chima observed: “The total capital budgetary allocation for health sector is N6.2 billion with N4.5 billion allotted to King David University hospital alone.
“For the 1st and 2nd quarter, only the King David University hospital received above N3.46b out of its allocated fund representing 77.40 per cent.
“The Ministry of health itself received only N3, 952,108.84 representing 0.30% of its allocated fund of N1, 168, 000,000. 00, leaving a balance of N1,164, 047, 891. 16.
“The State Primary Healthcare Development Agency and other parastatals, Agencies and Departments within the health sector received nothing within the two quarters.
“Under the education sector, only King David Gifted Children Academy already received 100% of its allocated fund of N30 billion within the quarters under review.
“And apart from the Universal Basic Education Board, UBEB, which received over N4 billion out of its allocated N7.6 billion, representing 52.80%, no other agency in education received a Kobo, including the Ministry itself.
“Under WASH, only N49m has been released so far to the Ministry of Water Resources out of the total allocated fund of N1.76 billion to it and its parastatal, Ebonyi Rural Water and Sanitation Agency, EB-RUWASSA, representing only 2.80% performance for the two quarters under review.
The CSOs however, further observed that the over 50% performance recorded under UBEB was because most, if not all of the fund comes from the federal, under the Universal Basic Education Commission.
While they commended Governor David Umahi for roads and other physical infrastructures across the State, the CSOs urged the Governor to also balance the needs in other sectors such as primary health, education and WASH.
They resolved to write an official letter to the Governor conveying their concerns and observations, as well as calling for a more balanced and improved budget performance in the State.
In a goodwill message delivered at the event, the USAID-S2S Capacity Building Specialist, Ibiam Azu Agwu, encouraged the DIG Foundation and other partner CSOs never to relent in pushing for improved governance and service delivery in the State through accountability transparency and inclusiveness.
Some of the CSOs that participated in the review included Humanity Foundation, Initiative for Social Change in Africa, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Centre, Gracefield Development Initiative of Nigeria, Participatory Development Alternatives, Community Health and Development Initiative, among others.