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Permanent Secretary, Gombe State Ministry of finance and Economic Development, Alhaji Ibrahim Jalo addresses the meeting
By Akanji Alowolodu, Gombe
The negative effect of the covid-19 pandemic has been said to huge negative impact on the finances of Gombe State Government prompting it to as a matter of necessity reduce its expenditure.
The disclosure was made by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Alhaji Ibrahim Jalo during an interactive session with News men in Gombe on Tuesday shortly after a townhall meeting with relevant stakeholders on the state 2020 Citizens Accountability Report (CAR).
The Permanent Secretary also said that the reduction on government expenditure was to enable it meet with other financial obligations critical to the development of the state without leaving anything critical and important to suffer.
Ibrahim Jalo said that, “during the pandemic period, we quickly made some adjustments by realigning the state budget, by making a supplementary budget to meet the challenges on ground. We intimated the public how covid-19 affected the budget through citizens engagement, inform them that the resources expected would no longer be realizable.
He further said that, “We are all aware of how covid-19 exposed government all over the world on their investment on health sector. And from the onset of Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s administrations, health has been an area of priority”.
The Permanent Secretary however explained that, “in spite of the pandemic, the government decided to focus attention on the health sector through the construction of General Hospital Kumo and massive renovation and restructuring of the General Hospital, Bajoga and Kaltungo”.
He added that the construction and renovation of the three hospitals in the state was to expand the health care system to the public “and this is why the government deemed it wise to invest heavily on health ,” he said.
Ibrahim Jalo further said that , the meeting was the first of its kind in Gombe and the essence was to bring everybody on board ,intimate them what the government get and how it has been spent.
Public Financial Management (PFM) Specialist, of Gombe State USAID office, Mrs. Eunice Okoroafor commended the organizers for organizing the event which she described as a key to good governance.
She said that the financial statement of the government has been broken down to the language citizens would understand during the meeting.
She however said the event was significant to them in USAID because they have been advocating and supporting the state in that direction and further expressed hope that CAR will be produced yearly for accountability and transparency.
