The World Bank has commended the Government of Kogi State on its 2020 audited financial statement, describing the financial report as a standard for transparency and accountability in the public sector.

The Bank made the commendation in a letter sent to the Accountant General of Kogi State, dated November 21, 2021.

The letter, which was received by the state Accountant General was signed by the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programme (SFTAS) Task Team Leader, Nigeria Country Office, Western and Central African Region, Deborah Hannah Isser.

SFTAS is a $750m programme to reward States for meeting any or all of nine indicators that demonstrate improvements in fiscal transparency, accountability and sustainability.

The nine indicators are an offshoot of the previous Fiscal Sustainability Plan of the Federal Government where States were to be rewarded for meeting up to 22 targets.

The World Bank had supported the Federal Government to incentivise the States to properly achieve the 22-point Fiscal Sustainability Plan, which has now been redesigned as the nine Disbursement Linked Indicators under SFTAS.

The SFTAS programme is part of efforts of the Federal Government to further enhance the transparency and accountability in the use of public resources through the implementation of the Open Government Partnership, which Nigeria signed to in July 2016.

The latest World Bank letter is also coming about a month after the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) acknowledged the improvement of Kogi State on its ICAN’S Novel Accountability Index (ICAN AI).

The institute said the State moved from 12th to 7th position in its 2019 assessments.

Source:- Punch Ng

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