The Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) is mobilising Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and journalists to deepen advocacy and engagement to make contract information open and accessible in Kaduna State.
Mr Vershima Tingir, PPDC Team Lead, Open Contracting Implementation in the state, made this known while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Thursday.
Tingir on the sideline of a focus group discussion on fiscal reforms in Kaduna state, said that PPDC had been supporting various stakeholders in the state to ensure openness in government businesses.
He said that the discussions were on fiscal reforms in the state in five thematic areas; namely, landscape assessment, institutional arrangement, policy context, technical assessment and users of open contracting data.
According to him, the goal is to make contracting data accessible by citizens for transparency and accountability that will, in the long run, engender public trust and ownership.
“This is in line with the Open Government Partnership and the commitment of the state government to make all its businesses open and accessible to members of the public.
“Today we came together to review some of the ongoing fiscal reforms in the state and some of the commitments made by the government.
“The discussion would enable us to identify gaps and opportunities for more collaboration to strengthen our engagement,” he said.
Tingir acknowledged that the state government had undertaken a lot of reforms, commitment and had taken some remarkable steps towards implementing the commitment.
He, however, noted that there were still some gaps in the implementation process, and stressed the need for more collaboration among non-state actors to strengthen advocacy to government partners.
He said that the findings from the discussions would inform a report that would be presented to other relevant stakeholders for further discussion on the way forward.
“We are looking forward to a co-creation process with several stakeholders.
“This will involve stakeholders coming together to agree on steps that need to be taken and make a commitment on how to achieve common goals in making contracting data open and accessible.
“At the end, we will be able to develop a strategic plan for implementation of all commitments by all relevant stakeholders in the state,” he said. (NAN)
