The Kwara State Government Monday was awarded the sum of $5m (N1.9bn) by the Federal Government for fulfilling the State Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS)‘s new disbursement-linked indicator related to budget reviews that prioritise COVID-19 economic recovery.
The state won the SFTAS grant for also publishing an approved amended 2020 COVID-19 responsive budget by July 31, 2020, thereby meeting verification protocols for the programme, a statement by the Commissioner for Finance and Planning Olasumbo, Florence Oyeyemi revealed.
The statement continued: “The four requirements in the amended budgets are revision of gross statutory allocation projections, compared to the original budget; reduction in non-priority overheads and capital expenditures, compared to the original budget; allocation of expenditures to COVID-19 response programmes for relief, restructuring and recovery (with total COVID-19 response expenditures representing at least 10% of the total amended budget expenditures); and identification of the financing sources to fully finance the budget deficit without accumulation of new domestic expenditure arrears.”
The Ravens gathered that the fund is meant to support budget implementation.
Meanwhile, Kwara State had earlier this year received $5m for meeting verification protocols for SFTAS programme for results for year 2018.
Assessment for the 2019 SIFTAS compliance is ongoing, with Kwara tipped to perform better in the next round of disbursement.
