Mr Haruna Ogbole, Nasarawa State Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Planning, has restated government’s commitment to ensure transparent budgeting in line with global best practice.
Ogbole gave the assurance on Thursday in Lafia during the step down training on Budget Compliant Chart of Accounts for Directors of Finance and Account (DFAs), Bursars and Accountants in the state.
He said that the state had migrated from the old accounting system in budgetting to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) since 2014.
The commissioner, however, said that some DFAs and other account officers were yet to get familiar with the system, hence the training towards ensuring global best practice.
He said that before the implementation of IPSAS, the state was nowhere in terms of giving clear information on budget performance to the public, but now the state was rated 19th position on the national chart.
Ogbole expressed optimism that with the training, the state would become one of the best in the country.
He said that the state had moved away from the era of only drafting budgets in Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to participatory budgeting.
“Currently, we are holding town hall meetings across the three senatorial zones of the state to get citizens’ input in order to make the state budget realistic,” Ogbole said.
The commissioner lauded Gov. Abdullahi Sule for approving the training and the various interventions aimed at ensuring transparency in governance.
Speaking, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr Emmanuel Alidzi, said the training would enable participants perform better in preparing budgets in line with the National Chart of Accounts. (NAN)
