USAID concludes quarterly meeting with state Assembly MDAs with education, health as priority in Ebonyi.

Jacob Ogodo Abakaliki

The USAID State Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness (State2State) activity has organized the  quarterly budget Performance hearing between the Ebonyi State House of Assembly and it’s priority MDAs in Ebonyi state with her priority sectors in Education, Health and WASH .

Speaking at the occasion, the Speaker,  Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Moses Ije Odunwa said that the intervention of USAID State2State activity in the state has made members of the House to beef up their oversight functions in order to improve on the budget implementation in the state.

 Odunwa commended the State2State activity in the state as their regular trainings, engagements and technical support have helped in the budget performance in the state.

He maintained that since the intervention of USAID State2State activity in the state members of the House of Assembly have beefed up their oversight functions in order to improve on the budget implementation in the state.

For these and other benefits, the Speaker promised to keep more synergy with the USAID and other relevant agencies in order to achieve the developmental goals of the present administration under the People’s Charter of Needs of Governor Nwifuru, most especially in the Education, Health, WASH and other sectors..

Other members of the State House of Assembly including Hon Victor Nwoke, Hon Esther Agwu,  Hon. Friday Ogbuewu, Him. Mrs. Chinyere Nwogbaga, Hon Godwin Abiri all pledged to follow up the implementation of the state budget using the budget oversight template in monitoring project implementation in the state.

The Citizens Engagement and Capacity Building Specialist Munachiso Odulana facilitated the development of the action plan and recommendation for effective budget implementation in subsequent quarters .

Mr. Israel Mbam who spoke on the performances in the Education sector observed that more is needed to be done as it was observed that there were some substandard project execution, vandalisation of educational structures, inadequate number of teachers and learning materials, and most importantly, the non provision of toilet facilities in the SUBEB constructed classroom blocks.

In a paper delivered by  the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities, Ebonyi state Chapter with Ebonyi CSOs Network, they called for the passage of the Disability bill in Ebonyi state to enable the people with Disabilities have equal  rights to livelihood .

Earlier in her welcome remarks, the state Team Lead of the USAID State2State Activity in Ebonyi state, Dr. Sam Onyia represented by the Local Government Manager, Mrs Victoria Ebere Eze outlined the objectives of the programme to include the review of the state’s quarterly budget implementation in the Health, Education and WASH, to strengthen the capacity of the state House of Assembly in managing budget performances, review tracking and analysing budget implementation results.

In a vote of thanks, a Director in the Accounts Department of UBEB, Mrs Josephine Nweke thanked the USAID State2State and the Ebonyi state House of Assembly for their efforts at improving budget performances in the state.