Kano state government, through the Office of the Auditor General (AuG), commenced a two-day technical session on the 2023 Citizens Accountability Report (CAR) on Monday.
The activity was held in Kaduna to demonstrate the sustainability of the strategic subset of reform processes and publications of the World Bank’s Strengthening Fiscal Sustainability, Transparency, and Accountability (SFTAS) Initiative.
The Citizens’ Accountability Report (CAR) is a series of graphic and tabular illustrations of the state’s Audited Financial Statements prepared by AuG to the citizens to ensure accountability of public funds.
It is mainly to give a simplified version of the whole budget for easy understanding of the everyday people.
In his remarks, Kano State AuG Isma’ila Musa welcomed participants to the technical session that will develop and validate the CAR.
According to him, the process of developing the 2023 CAR started with the audited financial statements of the Kano State Government for the year ended 31st December 2023 which were presented by the state Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, under the Office of the Accountant General and published in the Guardian and Daily Trust Newspapers on 3rd July 2024, a requirement of the Public Financial Management Reform (PFM).
The AuG appreciated Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf for approving the conduct of the CAR technical workshop sponsored by his office.
He also expressed his profound gratitude to participants, especially the Partnership to Engage, Reform, and Learn (PERL) known now as the Partnership for Agile Governance and Climate Engagement (PACE).
PERL has over the years provided technical support to the Kano State Government in the area of PFM reforms such as the review of financial laws and regulations, the budget – chart of accounts upgrade from 35 to 52 digits budget classification.
Others are annual cash planning and expenditure, revenue forecast and generation, expanded taxpayer database by the Kano Internal Revenue Service, which resulted in a corresponding increase in IGR, and regular production of the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF).
The Director of Final Accounts at the Office of the Accountant General, Rabiu Abdullahi, said: “The 2023 CAR reflects the level of state government engagement towards enhancing transparency and accountability in the financial management system to showcase good governance and boost public trust and confidence.”
Akibu Hamisu is a civil society advocate and thematic lead of fiscal Transparency of the Kano State Open Government Partnership (OGP).
He said the CAR speaks to the citizens’ budget, how their budget resources are generated and spent, and it identifies government efforts in implementing citizen-nominated projects.
He said it serves as a tool to ensure that the budget is shared with the public transparently and citizens take part in the processes to ensure implementation processes are more accountable to the people.
The OGP Fiscal Transparency lead recommended that more stakeholders should be engaged during the presentation of the final report.
He added that corrective measures should be taken to avoid future occurrences of unaccounted spending.
Hamisu commended the AuG’s office for sustaining the CAR process.
