Isiyaku Ahmed
Kano State Government through the Office of the Auditor General (AuG) has reemphasized its commitment to sustaining the strategic subset of reform processes and publications of the World Bank’s Strengthening Fiscal Sustainability, Transparency, and Accountability (SFTAS) Program.
This was made known by the Kano State AuG during a 2-day technical session for developing the Citizens’ Accountability Report (CAR) held in Kaduna on Monday.
The Citizens’ Accountability Report (CAR) is a summarized version of the state’s Audited Financial Statement presented as a series of graphic and tabular illustrations to the citizens to ensure accountability of public funds. The 2022 CAR based on the report should be published online no later than September 2023.
The publication will also contain details of the state government’s consultations with citizens on the state’s annual financial statement.
By standard, the CAR will only be completed and published if the audited financial statements have been published and presented to the State House of Assembly.
In his opening remarks, the Kano State AuG, Alh. Samaila Musa welcomed participants to the technical session leading to the development and validation of the CAR.
He expressed gratitude and appreciation to the Executive Governor of Kano State, Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf for approving the conduct of this important technical session organized by my office annually.
He said: “Two weeks ago we were here in Kaduna for a workshop organized by the office of the Director General Debt Management office Kano on Medium Term Debt Management Strategy framework while yesterday (Sunday) the Ministry of Planning and Budget had concluded its 2-day workshop on Medium Term Expenditure Framework and releases a call circular for the submission of 2024 Budget proposals to all MDA’s.
“Indeed this is timely and recommendable to the Ministry of Planning and Budget.
“We have had an opportunity and utilized extra time we had after conducting a program in May 2023, to kick start the formulation of the CAR template and initiate the narrative writing.
“In view of this, we will today present the previous work done and this gathering will review, validate, and finally adopt the work done.
“After this, an Executive report will be prepared and presented to the Governor.”
The AuG thanked PERL – ARC representatives, the SFTAS Focal Person, Directors from the Office of the Auditor General, the Director of Final Accounts, the Director of Planning Research & Statistics Kano State Internal Revenue Service, representatives of Public Procurement Bureau, the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Citizens representatives from Open Government Partnership (OGP) and other Audit Staff.
On his part, the Director of Projects Monitoring at the Kano State Office of the Auditor General, Ali Musa Chiranchi said the CAR process started in May 2023 with the development of the Budget Outturn, Revenue Outturn, Expenditure Outturn, and Audit Findings.
“Although all the Audit findings drafted were not contained in the current financial year because then, the AuG had not submitted his audit report to the State House of Assembly.
“Now that the AuG has submitted his report on 27 July 2023 and published it online, we will give the current standing of the state auditing findings.”
He added that during the event, participants will continue work on the remaining five sections of the CAR, that is, Audited Financial Summary, Top Sectorial Allocations, Top Value Capital Projects, Citizens Nominated Projects, and Public Consultations with Citizens, starting with the corrections of the audit findings.
The PERL Knowledge Management, Communications & Reform Facilitator, Habiba Isyaku Njidda said “PERL is delighted with the progress being made by the state government towards sustaining key reform processes that emanated from the SFTAS program.
“PERL implores the champions of the process to strengthen the capacity of more officials within the service to further embed these improvements and ensure that more officials are able to develop and publish this report.”
Kano State Civil Society Adviser for the OGP, Isiyaku Ahmed said the CAR speaks to the citizens’ budget which seeks to ensure full participation of citizens in the budgeting processes from start to finish.
He said: “CAR is a tool to ensure that the state financial statement is shared with the public transparently and citizens take part in the processes to ensure implementation processes are more accountable to the people.
Ahmed appreciates the government’s commitment to sustaining the process even without the development partners’ contribution.
In his votes of thanks, the Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, Office of the AuG, Alh. Sulaiman Badamasi commended Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje for supporting the reform initiative.
He also thanked the Consultant, PERL representative, the OGP, and staff of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies for a job well done at the event.
The Partnership to Engage, Reform, and Learn (PERL) – Accountable, Responsive, and Capable Government (ARC) program supported the state government in 2021 to develop the first 2020 CAR, but in a move to own the processes and publication of the report, the government continued to develop the CAR document annually.
PERL is a seven-year public-sector accountability and governance program, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, FCDO, of the UK.
