How Delta Won World Bank Awards ln Fiscal Transparency – Official

The director-general (DG) of the Delta State Orientation Bureau, Eugene Uzum, has said contrary to criticisms by some politicians, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa administration’s prudent fiscal and transparent governance profile has been vindicated and acknowledged by the World Bank.

After the governor received four awards – Excellent Performance on Fiscal Transparency and Accountability; Very Good Performances on Efficiency of Public Expenditure; Overall Performance in SFTAS; and Debt Sustainability – from the global bank in Asaba yesterday, Ozum said the awards were due to some of its reforms.

“The state government earned the awards under the World Bank’s States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability (SFTAS) had impacted positively on its fiscal transparency and accountability in public resource management.

Uzum commended members of the SFTAS Implementation Committee in the state for their hard work which led to the state’s excellent performance, saying orientation can be a crusade to build capacity in the public service in the state.

“I thank God and the team that has been working on the SFTAS programme in the last four years. I truly feel happy with the awards that we have received as a state.

“It just goes to confirm that we have tried our best in the course of orientation in our state. We have also relied on the internal team in government in the course of these four years. It shows

“There is no doubt that we need to continue to improve. But the truth is that there is capacity built already in the public service and the more we are able to utilize the resources available for us, the better for us for growth and development in the state,” he said.

Also, the commissioner for finance, Chief Fidelis Tilije, had explained that SFTAS was a World Bank programme established in 2018 to encourage and motivate sub-national governments towards improvement of their Public Finance Management systems, processes and institutions.

He said it was aimed at strengthening fiscal transparency to build trust in government, facilitate accountability in public resource management and ensure sustainability in the participating states.

He said Delta was overall best in the South South and second best in Southern Nigeria which earned it a cumulative $51 million in grants.