The Hon. Commissioner of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Hon. Asiwaju Asiru Idris FCA, made this known during the signing of a Joint Partnership Action Plan with BudgIT in Abuja recently.
The Commissioner who noted that, the objectives of the Foundation are in line with the New Direction policy, saying with this relationship, the important component of governance, which is transparency, accountability and sustainability be furrther deepened in the system. He appreciated the Team for partnering with the state and assured them of all necessary support to ensure the objectives are achieved.
Hon. Asiwaju said the present Administration, under the leadership of His Excellency, Alh. Yahaya Bello, is committed to transparency and accountability, noting that Kogi state recently top other States in budgeting process, auditing of it’s financial statements and procurements, debt services among others. This he said, earned the state first and second positions respectively in the 2018 and 2019 in the State Fiscal and Transparency, Accountability and sustainability(SFTAS) financial ratings.
While acknowledging the website developed for the state, Hon. Idris said it will further strengthen the ties between the State government and the foundation in the development of an open budget system platform and implementation of a fiscal transparency programme.
He urged them to adhere strictly to the Foundation’s core values of transparency, accountability, justice and fairness and to ensure that their operations, mode of data presentation to the public are not biased and lastly, the Foundation should not be politically influenced.
In his address, the lead team of the Budgit Foundation, Mr Tope Agunloye, appreciated the Commissioner for finding time out of his busy schedule to be part of the meeting.
Mr Agunloye said the purpose of the Foundation is to see a community of active citizens that relentlessly make effective use of public information to demand accountability geared for institutional improvement, efficient service delivery, value for money and an equitable society.
While noting that Budgit is a Civic Organisation founded in 2011, Mr Agunloye said one of it’s aims is to apply technology by intersecting citizens engagement with institutional improvement and to facilitate societal change.
He assured the Commissioner of the Foundation’s maximum cooperation and proper service delivery.