By Philip Yatai

The Kaduna State Government is strengthening transparency and accountability in local government administration, says the state’s Auditor-General for Local Government, Alhaji Atiku Musa.

Musa told journalists in Kaduna on Sunday, that the reform was being achieved through Local Government Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programme, (LFTAS).

He recalls that the state government had in July 2018 set aside N20 million as incentives for local government areas that embrace the programme, adding that the programme was a huge success.

He said that the LFTAS programme was borne out of the government’s renewed effort to make local government areas vibrant to meet the aspirations and yearnings of the people.

According to him, the step was taken to promote development at the grassroots by creating an autonomous, adequately funded, transparent and responsible local government system capable of delivering service to the people.

“This is in line with the provisions of the Kaduna State Local Government Reform Law 2017 which among other things mandated the LGAs to develop a culture of participatory governance.

“This is being achieved by encouraging community members to participate in the preparation, implementation and review of development plans and annual budget.

“The structural reforms are intended to give local governments a greater capacity for effective service delivery, promote development at grassroots and ensure policy alignment with the state and Federal Government policies.”

At the state level, the A-G recalls that the state government was recently rated the best in Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability (SFTAS) by the World Bank.

He added that the state was equally rated as the first sub-national to attract the highest Direct Foreign Investment in the first half of 2020 by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).

‘’Not only that, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has ranked Kaduna state as the 6th in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the country and the first in the north, excluding Abuja, in 2019,’’ he said.

He said that based on these feats, Kaduna had been chosen to host the 2020 edition of the annual Conference of Auditors-General for Local Governments and Area Councils.

According to him, the choice of Kaduna was largely due to its track record of entrenching transparency and accountability in governance both at the state and local government levels.

He added that the conference which would be held between Sept. 14 and 18, was with the theme, “Attaining Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Through Better Audit Process.”