By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly (BAHA) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded program –State Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness Activity (USAID State2State) have assessed the 2023 budget performance to ascertain the level of development.
The lawmakers commended the Agency for its support to the State in strengthening health, education, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).
Speaking during a workshop for the 31 lawmakers and organised by USAID State2State held in Kano, the Chairman House Committee on Health, Hon. Lawal Dauda described the exercise as timely and pertinent.
He said: “It isn’t just a review meeting, but a capacity building engagement that exposes us to some of our constitutional responsibilities as representatives of our people.
“With the new acquired knowledge on the budget processes that were taken through by the Commissioner of Budget and Planning himself, I want to assure our constituents that there is going to be significant improvement in the implementation of the current and subsequent budgets of the State.
“I want to express my sincere appreciation to USAID State2State for their intervention in building the capacity of the relevant MDAs, legislators, and CSOs. This will strengthen the system through quality spending of public funds for effective and efficient service delivery in the critical sectors of health, education and WASH,” Dauda said.
Also, Hon. Sa’idu Sulaiman Darazo, member representing Darazo Constituency and the Deputy Chairman House Committee on Water Resources, said the budget performance review workshop had exposed them to the tedious processes of preparing the state budget.
“We were presented with the performance of the 2023 budget and came face to face with the amount appropriated and what was actually spent. Such knowledge will prompt us into advocating to the executives arm for better budget performance, through improved releases in at least the three critical sectors of health, education and WASH,” Darazo said.
On his part, the member representing Madara/Chinade, Hon. Nasiru Ahmed Ala, said it would enhance his constituents’ ability to be part of the budget processes through the innovative use of the Community Charter of Demand (CCD), that captures their needs.
“When you look at the three sectors of health, education and WASH, it is interwoven in such a way that inefficiency in one of the sectors will affect the effective performance of the other sectors.
Earlier in his closing remarks, Speaker of the House, Abubakar Sulaiman described the 2023 Bauchi State budget performance review workshop as “the best workshop I have attended so far”, and also applauded USAID State2State Activity in Bauchi State.
“Personally, the workshop has strengthened my capacity as a legislator and also deepened my knowledge on constitutional responsibility for oversight functions.
“Let me seize this opportunity to express my appreciation to USAID State2State Bauchi field office for their support to the Bauchi State House of Assembly in particular and the State in general”, said the Speaker.
Participants were drawn from the relevant State MDAs, CSOs and the media, and presentations were made by the State Ministry of Budget, Economic Planning and Multilateral Coordination and USAID State2State Bauchi field office.
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