Date: 2020-02-17

My name is Ahmad Babatunde . I'm a private financial analyst.

People have asked me to make some comments about some misunderstandings on the 2020 budget in Kwara State. As I have told some people before, this budget is not just about the best in terms of provision for the ordinary people, it is about the most participatory in the recent history of our state. The grilling at the budget sessions attest to this. One appreciates the debate on the budget. It shows our democracy is growing and one is happy to be around at the dawn of such great development. Fact: the budget is not perfect.

That said, I have observed a huge dose of inadequate knowledge of the budget process, including from some persons one expects to know. The only example I will cite here is the claim by an online platform, the Informant247, that government spent more money on salary in the third quarter when the cabinet had not been sworn in than in the fourth quarter when cabinet members had been sworn in - and salary, expectedly, ought to rise.

It was alleged that the government spent N10.68bn on personnel cost in the third quarter while it spent N3.383bn in the fourth quarter. This is a huge misreading of the budget. A close look at the budget showed that the said N10.68bn is tagged 'Three-Quarter Year Summary' for personnel cost. What this means is that the government spent N10.68bn on personnel cost (ONLY) for the past nine months (three quarters). These of course exclude related salary and overhead costs. In other words, N10.68bn related to nine months (three quarters), not three months (third quarter). So there was no basis for that report.

One has seen many mischievous, if not libellous, posts by some opposition vuvuzelas arising from this story. One even claimed that the governor has been spending humongous amounts to run his office. Funny thing to say to a Governor who clearly has been denying himself things that are legally due to him. My advice to the Informant247 team is that they need to equip themselves with basic knowledge of governance process, especially budgeting. It is not enough for journalists to just stumble on some figures and go to town with it. The ethics of journalism requires that you find out what confuses you, especially things that are too controversial to be true. It doesn't matter if it takes days for you to get your response from the appropriate quarters. It is better to get your facts right than to mislead the public.

But there is a bright side to all these. The attention being paid to the budget of Kwara State, perhaps for the first time ever, is exactly what the State Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability Programme (SFTAS) for Result, a World Bank initiative, seeks to achieve. So, Kwara is on the right track after all. However, I call for caution. Shalom!