By Christian Njoku
Calabar – The Cross River Commissioner for Finance, Mr Asuquo Ekpeyong, says the state is still eligible for the World Bank’s State, Fiscal, Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programme (SFTAS) grant.
Ekpeyong, while reacting to a report by an online publication that the state missed out on the first batch of the grant because of its poor accounting and budgeting system, said the report was farther from the truth.
The commissioner, who spoke at a press briefing in Calabar on Monday, said he was disheartened by the publication, adding that no one contacted him or the ministry to fact- check before publishing the report.
He said that Cross River did not have any issue regarding qualification for the grant, adding that the state was part of those in the second batch of the three-year programme.
Ekpeyong maintained that the state would still earn the same amount as the other 24 states that shared N43 billion in the first batch.
“Two years ago, the World Bank designed a programme called SFTAS, which dealt with the fiscal activities and responsibilities of state governments and provided incentives for state governments to meet their fiscal needs.
“Cross River has achieved most of the disbursement link indicators (DLIs) and the eligibility criteria of the programme.
“There was also the need for online publication of the state’s assented budget within a given timeline and its statement of account.
“The state did all these, and it can be verified on the government’s website, www.CRS.gov.ng. We sent also hard copies to the World Bank, which they acknowledged.
“But when they went online to access our budget, there was a glitch in the system. Although they had the hard copies, the programme required them to be able to access your budget remotely and that problem has been rectified.
“As such, we were not part of the first batch. However, we are part of the second batch and we will earn the same grant which other states in the first batch had received.
“So it is not as though we have missed out on any of these grants. We are qualified and will earn ours,” he said.
Ekpeyong appealed to journalists in the state to ensure that they carried out proper fact-checking before publishing any report so as not to mislead the public. (NAN)
