The Green-The-Red Cluster Project has called on journalists to join hands and tasked the Ebonyi State Government to increase budgetary releases for social sectors, especially as it concerns the health and education sectors.
The group, through its Anchor Organisation and Executive Director of DIG Foundation, Mr Oliver Chima Ajah, made the appeal on Monday while presenting the third-quarter budget performance of sectors of interest, especially as it relates to capital budgets in the state.
According to Ajah, the media publicising and publishing issues of poor social sector budget releases will help the Green-The-Red Project achieve its goals.
He then commended Governor Francis Nwifuru’s numerous ongoing projects in the health, education, and other sectors in the state but said those performances will not count as they are not traceable to the 2024 state budget.
He urged Governor Francis Nwifuru to make social sector budget releases an agenda of the State Executive Council meetings and ensure that heads of MDAs are committed to writing fundable memos for consideration at Exco meetings to enable all social sector-related expenditures to be drawn from the approved budget.
According to him, despite all the governor’s efforts, Ebonyi has never reached the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommendation of 26% of the budget for the education sector, including fulfilling the 2001 Abuja Declaration of allocating 15% of the budget to the health sector over the years.
He, however, urged media practitioners to join hands with them in sensitising the public on budgetary releases to social sectors, prioritise items in the budget for all expenditures, and show commitment to supporting the achievement of a 70% budget release for social sectors by the end of 2024.
His words: “The Green-The-Red Cluster Project, as its name connotes, is advocating for increased budgetary releases for social sectors, especially health and education sectors in Ebonyi State. This engagement today is to brief you on the third-quarter budget performance of the sectors of interest, especially as it relates to capital budgets.”
“Ebonyi State Government is yet to fulfil the 2001 Abuja Declaration of allocating 15% of the budget to the health sector over the years and has never reached the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommendation of 26% of the budget for the education sector. Again, budget performances over the years have been poor across social sectors. For instance, in 2022, the Ministry of Health achieved only 0.2% of its annual capital budget releases, while the EBSPHCDA and others had 0% capital budget performances in 2022. As of September 2024, the Ministry of Health has 5.6%, EBSHIA 8.8%, and EBSPHCDA and others have 0%. This shows that none of the health sector MDAs had a pass mark, as each MDA is supposed to achieve at least 75% by the third quarter and 100% by December 2024. We recognise and commend the government for all ongoing projects; however, such spending should be traceable to the budget before it can be counted as performance for the state!”
“We, therefore, call on the media to make personal commitments to support achieving the Green-The-Red Project objectives, publicise and publish issues of poor social sector budget releases in both print and electronic media, and join hands in advocating for budgetary releases to social sectors.”
“We call on the Ebonyi State Government to:
- Prioritize items in the budget for all expenditures in the state;
- Show commitment to supporting achieving a 70% budget release for social sectors by the end of 2024;
- Ensure all social sector-related expenditures are drawn from the approved budget;
- Make social sector budget release an agenda for the State Executive Council meetings;
- Ensure heads of MDAs commit to writing fundable memos for consideration at Exco meetings,” he said.
The presentation was signed by Abraham Children Foundation, Development and Integrity Intervention Goal Foundation, Da’Wah and Guidance Bureau of Nigeria, Faith Community Counseling Organization.
Others include Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Centre, Methodist Care Ministry, Ohinya Global Resources, Technology for Transformative Development Foundation, and Ebonyi Civil Society Network/Ebonyi Civil Society Situation Room.
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