The Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly Rt. Hon. Abubakar Y Suleiman has sought the support of USAID and other development partners to enable the legislative arm work in tandem with international best practice on public financial management, procurement, budget and budgeting and financial discipline among others.
He was speaking during the opening ceremony of a three day workshop for members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly and Budget Officers from relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies in Bauchi State, organised by USAID funded state accountability and effectiveness (State2State) activity, held at Tahir Hotel, Kano on Tuesday.
The Speaker who is also the Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria, commended the Government and people of the United States of America for the various assistance and interventions to Nigeria in particular and the continent of Africa in general, saying these actions and intentions are geared towards strengthening governance with a view to ensuring better standard of living for the people.
“As you may be aware, this training Workshop is part of series of activities contained in the new Five year State Accountability and Effectiveness (State2State) Activity, which was launched on the 24th March, 2021 by USAID with a view to strengthening subnational governance systems in six key states of Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Gombe and Sokoto. We are also particularly grateful to USAID for not only including Bauchi as benefiting State, but also making us to be the Headquarters of the Programme.
“I believe without doubts, the activity will help improve how we, the benefiting states, plan and budget, raise revenues, increase civil society participation, and oversee service delivery in the Health, Education; and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sectors. Indeed these selected areas are no doubts relevant and very essential to the survival of our people.
“You will agree with me that this programme is very important and timely because it has come at a time when Financial Autonomy is being implemented in our Legislative and Judicial arms of government at the state level in our country. The Honourable Members, Judges and management staff of the two arms of government are expected to have required knowledge and understanding of budget and budgeting system for effective and efficient discharge of their respective constitutional roles.” He explained.
Speaker Abubakar Suleiman also enjoined the participants to make best use of the rare opportunity in order to comprehend the lectures that will be delivered for better performance of their Constitutional roles especially that of Law Making and Oversight function.
He assured that the Bauchi State House of Assembly will not only work to sustain the already established partnership and collaboration with the USAID, but shall continue to explore areas of mutual interest to both the USAID and the Bauchi State in particular and Nigeria in general.
On the implementation of financial autonomy to States legislature and judiciary, the Speaker requested USAID to consider organizing a special training workshop for the entire Honourable Members and relevant staff of the State Houses of Assembly in the Six focal states of State2State operations in order to expand and improve their knowledge of Financial Management and Discipline which will ultimately ensure good governance in the respective states.