A Non-Governmental Organisation has taken a retrospective view at the performance of the Bayelsa State budget for last year and cautioned the officials of the state government to take steps to correct lapses when implementing the 2013 budget.

Briefing journalists in Yenagoa, the Executive Director of African Leadership, Strategy and Development Centre (LSD), Dr Otive Igbuzor expressed worries that the level of recurrent expenditure including the over head cost in relation to personnel cost in the state increased from 40 percent in 2011 to 49 percent in 2012.

‘’A state with grossly inadequate social amenities and a high level of poverty evidenced by poor health and high child mortality rate inluding high levels of unemployment; should have more of the budget expenditure directed to capital projects’’

Dr Igbuzor who was represented at the press briefing by the Programme Officer of the Organisation, Mr Monday Osasah remarked that while the capital allocations may to some extent have reflected state agenda and MDGs priorities, it is important to ensure proportionality between allocations to personnel and overhead too.

The organisation remarked that in terms of actual implementation of the budget in 2012, its field officers discovered that in all sites visited non-release of fund for project execution was  inherent, except in Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources where the sum N10 million was released for farmers’ data and Works where the sum of N7 billion was release for the dualisation of Azikoro, Sani Abacha Express, and Edepie/Tombia roads.

Igbuzor also noted that “repetitions of line items with same amounts abound in almost every MDA in the state which shows lack of transparency and weak legislative oversight function both at the enactment/approval and monitoring/evaluaion stages of the budget proces;  the state budget still follows the incremental budgeting approach instead of zero budgeting; as a result there is lack of linkage betgween the state budget and the state policy at the general and sectoral levels’’.

The Centre LSD director recommended that in order to make the 2013 budget different, government should partner with Civil Society Organisations to undertake needs assessment that will feed into both LGAs and State budgets, carry out periodic monitoring exercise to assess level of implementation by MDAs, while relevant information should also be made available to citizens for easy tracking of projects.

They also advocate for enhanced efficiency in public expenditure management by strenghtening the capacuty of government institutions such as the Budget Office while the State Assembly should be further built to enable them carry out effective oversights functions.

Expressing gratitude to the state government for giving them opportunity to carry out the project of budget monitoring, the organisation further recommended that economic diversification should be emphasised through the development of the agro-allied processing, manufacturing and other non-oil sectors as to achieve a broader based employment generating and wealth creation economy.