July 31, (THEWILL) – The Kano State Government has denied media reports that it spent over N10 billion on furniture and fittings in the second quarter of the year.
Contrary to the reports, the State Commissioner for Planning and Budget, Alhaji Musa Sulaiman Shanono, said the State Government spent the funds on the settlement of liabilities of local contractors domiciled in the state Ministry of Finance.
“The Budget Performance Report for Kano State is prepared quarterly and issued within 4 weeks from the end of each quarter. This is a provision of the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) as well as the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).
“The report includes the original approved budget appropriation for the year 2024 against each organisational unit for each of the core economic classification of expenditures (Personnel, Overheads, Capital and Others); the actual expenditures for the quarter Two (Quarter 2), attributed to each organisational unit, as well as the cumulative expenditures for year to date, and balances against each of the revenue and expenditure appropriations were outlined in the report.
“The Second Quarter report is assessed against the 2024 approved budget with a total outlay of N437,338,312,787.93 with performance of revenue of N222,499,867,516.74 or 50.9% and expenditure of 163,615,769,123.21 Or 38%.
“You may wish to recall that there were media reports published in respect of the issue of over N10 billion spent on the purchase of furniture and fittings which was observed that the issue had to do with budget populating template that erroneously categorised the expenditure as the purchase of furniture and fittings instead of the settlement of liabilities of local contractors domiciled in the Ministry of Finance.
“However, the project description in the second quarter report justified that the expenditure is captured as payment of liabilities going by administrative classification.
“As part of the way forward, the Ministry of Planning and Budget is updating the template to correctly read the appropriate expenditure in relation to the Economic Code,” Shanono said.
He said the present administration in the state is committed to adopting principles of prudence and openness in disseminating financial information to the public for better service delivery.
That is why, he said, his ministry is publicising the Budget performance report on a quarterly basis as a feedback mechanism to the citizens.
“The Ministry of Planning and Budget is always willing to sustain the partnership between the government, media and citizens in the budget process to achieve transparency and openness in public spending,” the Commissioner added.
Abdullahi Yusuf is a seasoned journalist, communicator and was previously the Deputy Editor-In-Chief and Zonal Manager, News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Jos, where he retired on December 15, 2021
