BY Johnbosco Agbakwuru
CALABAR—Cross River State Government has lamented that the Federal Government had implemented less than five percent of federal projects in the budget that are sited in the state since 2008.
Special Adviser to Governor Liyel Imoke on Budget, Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Peter Oti, yesterday, who briefed newmen in Calabar, regretted that most federal projects in the state were now dilapidated and had always appeared on the budget but at the end of the day, nothing was done about them.
Oti noted that from 2008, rehabilitation of federal roads in the state, dredging of the Calabar port, the rehabilitation of police and army barracks always appeared in the budget but were never implemented.
On the performance of his department, he explained that before budgets were prepared, the state adopted a bottom-top approach and organised budget consultation forum, where stakeholders were invited and briefed on the performance of the previous budget with their input incorporated into the budget.
He said, the state considered three main attributes, due process, accountability and transparency while preparing budget, so that the people would be involved, and the budget monitored so that money would not be paid to people, who did not deserve it.
Oti explained that the state had introduced citizens budgeting system, where the budget estimate was written in three different languages of Efik, Bekwarra and Ejagham.
Vanguard Nigeria