The Ebonyi State Government has reacted to a report published in some media outlets alleging that the state has spent N1.1 billion on wildlife conservation, whereas there is no zoo in the State.
The report stated that the said amount was bigger than what the state spent on health and water provision for its inhabitants.
In a swift reaction, the state Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Jude Okpor, through a statement made available to journalists on Tuesday, described the report as lacking in truth.
Okpor stressed that the reporter failed to carry out the right investigation before dishing out the report, describing the act as a negation of journalism ethics.
The Commissioner explained that what the writer may have referred to in the budget performance report as expenditure on wildlife conservation was the amount meant for contingency expenditure in the budget.
The statement reads: “The publication is to say the least, not well researched and devoid of any iota of truth.
“The writer obviously failed to carry out adequate investigations necessary to authenticate his report.
“Without bearing any grudge or prejudice against the author of the publication, but in full understanding of his ignorance, we wish to clarify as follow:
“First, the amount N1.1b recorded against wildlife conservation is an amount meant for contingency item which the approved budget has it coded under MARGIN FOR INCREASE IN COST and not WILDLIFE CONSERVATION.
“If the author has seen it otherwise, it could probably have been a misplacement or typographic error, which the author who rightly asserted that there is no zoo in Ebonyi should have resorted to rightful authorities for clarification, in line with the ethics of journalism.
“Secondly, we wish to clarify that the Approved budget has a different template from the Quarterly Budget Implementation Report template, and at the point of population of the Quarterly report, which the said publication particularly referred to, the economic code was erroneously inputted.
“In the approved budget which the state government spends from, the said amount is under the Contingency Fund.
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“There’s no actual record in the state where such an amount as reported by the media outlet was spent on wild life conservation.
That is an error in transmission.”
The Commissioner in the statement noted that the implementation of the state budget since the inception of Nwifuru’s administration has been adjudged worthy by internationally acclaimed budget tracking organisation, BudgIT, ranking fifth on the fiscal transparency league table across the nation.
While urging the general public, particularly those that may have the need to refer to the publication, to be rightly guided, Okpor assured that whatever error in the state’s budget performance report would be corrected to reflect its real description in the last Quarter Budget Implementation report, which would be uploaded to the state website by January 2025.
The statement added: “We are ready and well disposed to making a copy of an extract from the state Approved budget available to any interested member of the public for reference purposes.
“It is important we use this medium to assure the people of Ebonyi State that the present administration of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru has remained faithful to its vow of accountability and prudence in the management of the state’s resources.
“The avalanche of developmental projects scattered across the state, covering all the sectors, and the unprecedented level of human capital development and economic empowerment of citizens of the state on regular basis bear eloquent testimonies to this administration’s commitment towards ensuring that the people’s money work for them.”
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