Govs' Forum urges uniform national budget

A CALL has been made by the Nigerian Governors' Forum Secretariat to the National Planning Commission (NPC) to device an enduring strategy that would make the country's yearly budget truly national by making it uniform.The Executive Director of the secretariat, Alhaji Abdulateef Shittu made the call recently at the Joint Planning Board & National Council on Development Planning Meeting held in Dutse, Jigawa State.He said the feat could be achieved by aggregating the federal budget and that of the component 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) into one document to make planning useful, rather than decorative. .According to him, 'It is strongly felt that if the states and FCT's budgets are aggregated into a single document, even if it is for memorandum purposes, then planning will be more utilitarian. The same argument is applicable to the process of accounting and monitoring of donor funds, grants and aids.'Should we include resources from donor and aids agencies as part of the budgetary process within the context of comprehensive planning' How do we face the challenges of fiscal responsibility' How do we fare with external assessments and ratings ' the recent MO Ibrahim Index and rating on good governance in Africa is a case in point.'Shittu called for relevant organs of government to understudy key performance indices of some of the rating partners in order to formulate parameters for gauging the magnitude and dimensions of our progress for the achievement of the Vision 20:2020 target.He gave the assurance that the Nigerian Governors' Forum was committed to the transformation agenda of the country.He added that the Forum's framework, synergies and collaboration with stakeholders was for the realisation of the Vision 20:2020 goals.
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