Due to the unimaginable success Osun State has recorded over time in the area of credible, accountable and fiscal transparency, World bank has listed the state has one of the 21 states throughout the federation that have satisfied its vision and qualified for world bank grant.
The State commissioner of finance, Mr. Bola Oyebamiji broke the news at a meeting with the SFTAS committee on Wednesday at the conference room of the Ministry of Finance of the state, stating that the state has been given a pass mark by the world bank in term of fiscal transparency.
State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability And Sustainability Programme (SFTAS), a programme designed by the World Bank through the federal ministry of finance to help state governments that are accountable and transparent in their state’s finances to benefit from grants that will be used for further development.
Determined to get such grants for the development of the state, the present administration immediately constituted a steering committee chaired by the Supervisor for Finance, Mr Bola Oyebamiji with a view to meeting up with all the eligibility criteria of the programme.
Oyebamiji called on the committee which has the Supervisor for Economic Planning, Budget and Development, Professor Olalekan Yinusa as Vice chairman not to relax as a result of the success just achieved but to start on meeting the target for 2019 and beyond.
While charging the committee to ensure that the state does not miss out on any of the variables in future, the financial expert stressed that all the processes which the state took to achieve the feat must be institutionalized to make things continue to work in a transparent manner.
“Out of the 36 states in the country including the FCT, it is gratifying that Osun is one of the leading states out of the 21 that scaled through and met up with most of the eligibility criteria.
“This is as a result of hard work and the transparent manner which governance has been run over the years in Osun. We must continue in this manner because there is still a lot for us to achieve. We must work to institutionalize the process that will make fiscal transparency to continue to be the order of the day.
“It is pertinent that we sustain this process because a transparent government is bound to succeed without any doubt and the masses will be better for it. That is why the World Bank through the federal ministry of finance is using the SFTAS programme to test the transparent nature of government before releasing the grant.
“I am happy that the World Bank has scored us high and I think we should be proud of ourselves, thank God we have not missed this opportunity.” He stated.
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