MDGs: Execute people’s oriented projects jn Taraba – Elisha charges Fed. govt

Okerafor Athanatius, Jalingo.

The Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Taraba State Northeast Nigeria have been charged to initiate and execute projects that have direct bearings in the lives of the people of the State.

The Taraba State Commissioner, Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Hon. Solomon Elisha gave the charge during a Press Conference in Jalingo the State capital.

Elisha said Reports made available to his Ministry from the Federal Government interventions in the State gave rise to this Press Briefing.

While addressing newsmen on Transparency and Accountability in governance, the Commissioner said one of the functions of the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning is to formulate and monitor all the implementation of government programmes, projects and activities in the State, including Federal or interventions from donor/development partners and advice government accordingly on service delivery to the citizenry.

He further described governance as the process of exercising political, economic and administrative authority over a State adding that it is the process by which governments are formed, held accountable, monitored and replaced.

“It is the capacity of governments to manage resources efficiently and to formulate, implement and enforce sound policies and programs; and so on”, said the Commissioner.

He pointed out that the elements of good governance include openness, transparency and accountability; fairness and equity in dealings with citizens; efficient and effective service delivery; stressing that such was being done
to promote the trajectory of growth in the economy both at the federal and sub national levels.

The Commissioner however, expressed worry over what he described as poorly executed, unspecified, abandoned or even non existent Federal government projects that are being executed and implemented in Taraba State.

“It’s been observed that some executing agencies have been used over the years for the execution and implementation of Federal Government constituency projects in Taraba State for certain senatorial districts and federal constituencies not withstanding their previous budget performance as it were poorly executed, unspecified, abandoned or even non-existent”,

“It has also been observed that certain zonal intervention projects and consolidated capital projects are seen by many Tarabans as individual projects rather than Federal Government constituency projects that the truly are”,

“Since 2020, some executing agencies (MDAs) used in implementing the National Budget in Taraba State as its customary for zonal intervention projects (ZIP) and consolidated capital projects from the economic recovery and growth plan (ERGP) under Buhari administration have so far been observed with dismay”, he said.

According to him, a number of interrelated methods are used in the Ministry’s monitoring exercise, which included desk review of submissions from Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs), field visits to project sites for physical verification to ascertain the level of performance for each project, and interaction with or interview of beneficiaries or community members to establish whether or not the projects/programme are achieving the desired results.

The purpose of freedom of information act 2011 of the 1999 constitution as amended, Elisha reiterated, was to empower citizens to take ownership of government projects in their constituencies, engage their elected representatives and demand accountability and transparency so that public funds will work for the well being of the people.

He disclosed that in the 2020 Federal Government budget, a budget line item with the title “Radio Station for the University, Taraba South Senatorial District, Taraba State with the unique excel code (2020ZIPO257) was captured under the Federal Ministry of Education and Federal University of Wukari as the executing agency for the sum N40,000,000 with an unspecified status, is yet to be seen completed.

“Since the 2020 Federal Government constituency projects budget performance was pegged at about 98% in terms of disbursement to MDAs, the conceptualization of government project interventions as individual efforts becomes worrisome because the players are our supposed representatives who have cornered our sovereign wealth to become theirs. The big question agitating our minds is that the little space given them at the constituency level has been mortgaged, how can we now or in the future aggregate our collective mandate for such representative to lead us or provide leadership at the State level?”,

“Other worrisome issues include votes of some Federal Agencies which were claimed to be implemented in the State These project titles have no coloration at all with the Agencies. Though beneficial to the State as claimed but are monumental frauds”, he said.