Asaba:-
Delta state Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, yesterday, directed the state Accountant General to produce a compressive report of the disbursement of the N10billion Paris Club fund.
The governor stated this in Asaba at the second edition of the Annual Audit Forum for stakeholders, organised by the office of the auditor general of the state in collaboration with State Employment and Expenditure for Result (SEEFOR), a World Bank and European Union assisted project.
Okowa said the report would enable the state government know how the money was spent at the various levels.
Before now, state government said N2.1 billion was allocated to local government councils for salary arrears and N7.9 billion was due to the state government, which spent N1.3billion on contributory pension arrears, N1.7billion for deductions due to co-operatives societies, and N315 million for state contributions to pension for May 2016.
N174 million was spent for restoration of BVN issue related salaries; N475 million augmentation of July 2017 salary; N300 million part payment of outstanding arrears of past services of state contributory pension scheme; N318 million – support to local government councils to pay June 2017 salaries; N3.5 billion – capital/recurrent expenditure approvals and it totals, N7.9 billion.
The governor charged auditors general to be prudent in management of resources due to dwindling revenue.
In his address, Auditor General, Mr. C.G Amudo, said the audit forum was pulling over 450 stakeholders in the state for the two days event to brain storm on the topic emerging Trends in transparent and accountable conduct of government business with core focus on the imperative of accurate book keeping.
In his paper, “Accounting for Government Expenditure”, the Auditor General of Cross River state, Mr. Chris Etim Nyong, noted that government expenditure involved a strategic planning where policy, plan and budget were linked in the medium term, adding that public procurement must follow due process in order to guarantee value for money.
