Edo Sacks Health Commissioner, Appoints Igbinoba Special Adviser

•State beats 34 others in fiscal transparency

The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has approved the disengagement of the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samuel Alli, with immediate effect.

In a statement, the Secretary to the State Government, Osarodion Ogie, also announced the appointment of Dr. Roland Igbinoba as Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Projects.

“The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has approved the disengagement of the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samuel Alli, with immediate effect. He is to hand over all government documents and resources in his possession to the most senior civil servant within the Ministry of Health.

“The government thanks him for his service and wishes him well in his future endeavours,” he stated.

Ogie added: “The governor is resolute on his finishing strong objective and will remove any obstacles that may hinder optimal service delivery to the people in the remaining four months of his administration.

“The governor has also approved the appointment of Dr. Roland Igbinoba as Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Projects, who will support the government in fast-tracking the conclusion of developmental projects across the State.”

Meanwhile, the Edo State Government has ranked first, beating 34 other Nigerian States and tying with Anambra State on BudgIT’s 2024 Q1 fiscal transparency league table.

BudgIT said the assessment, which is available on its website, “focused on the availability and comprehensiveness of key fiscal documents, the functionality of state websites and e-procurement portals, and the timeliness of publications.”

 It noted that in Q1 2024, the fiscal transparency across Nigerian States varied significantly, impacting their rankings on the States’ Fiscal Transparency League (SFTL) table.

The ranking had Edo and Anambra leading the pack with a 93 per cent score out of 100 per cent Ekiti (92 per cent), Jigawa (92 per cent), and Ebonyi (87 per cent) completing the top five.

At the bottom were Benue (42 per cent), Kebbi (42 per cent), Bayelsa (40 per cent), Borno (32 per cent) and Imo (31 per cent)  in descending order.

On Edo State’s performance, BudgIT said: “Having a tie and sharing similar strengths with Anambra, it needed a better arrangement of documents on their website.”

The key indicators for the ranking are the Medium-Term Expenditure Project (MTEF), Proposed Budget, Approved Budget, Citizens’ Budget, Budget Implementation Reports, Audit Reports, Accountant General’s Report/Financial Statement, e-procurement Portal, and State’s website with fiscal repository.

Each of the indicators is rated for their availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness in the report.

The report said the MTEF is an annual three-year-expenditure planning, noting that it sets out the medium-term expenditure priorities and hard budget constraints against which sector plans can be developed and refined.

“MTEF also contains outcome criteria for the purpose of performance monitoring. MTEF together with the annual Budget Framework Paper provides the basis for annual budget planning. The MTEF is expected to be published on the states’ website before the end of Q3,” it added.