By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor

ABUJA — AS many states in the country find it difficult to stay afloat, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State, yesterday attributed the successes recorded by his administration to the adoption and application of sound economic and fiscal policies.

Gov Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State

Governor Gaidam, who spoke at the opening of a two-day retreat for members of the State Executive Council, SEC, in Abuja, also said prudent management of its scarce resources and faithful implementation of its budget and policies had helped to stabilize the economy at a time many states could not pay the salaries of their workers.

He said the reforms implemented in conjunction with the United Kingdom-based Department for International Development, DfID, and the State Partnership for Accountability, Responsiveness and Capability, SPARC, had launched Yobe State into the league of prudent managers of public finance and good governance.

The governor said: “The cumulative effect of these reforms in Public Finance Management is the high standards of accountability and prudence manifested in the ability of the State Government to remain above board and keep paying salaries, overhead costs and even service some capital projects at a time when many states cannot pay staff salaries.  As part of efforts to internalize the lessons learnt through our collaboration with SPARC, our administration has made it mandatory for MDAs to conduct their activities in a transparent manner and this has checked diversion of funds, misappropriations, revenue leakages and misuse of public funds.

“In addition, we have formed committees to verify execution of contracts, payment of outstanding pensions and gratuity and conduct of Bio-metric enrolment for verification of staff and salaries with the aim of eliminating ghost workers.  Furthermore, we have set machinery for the establishment of Integrated Personnel Management Information System among others. To cap all our efforts of embracing reforms, we have formed a Governance Policy Advisory Committee under the Chairmanship of the Secretary to the State Government for the purpose of advising on and coordinating reform programmes.”

The governor disclosed that the state’s partnership with the UK-DfID in the last five years had resulted in major achievements particularly in the areas of result-based management, which had guided the state in its socio-economic reform agenda as well as the adoption of a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system for tracking budget performance.