Femi Mustapha
For its immense contributions and support to Local Government reforms and the establishment of the Local Government Accountability Mechanism (LGAM) in the 23 LGAs, the Partnership to Engage, Reform Learn (PERL) has been awarded in recognition.
The LGAM team who were received by Reform Manager of ARC, Ashiri Sani and State Team Leader of ECP, Abel Adejor, together with other team members at their office in Kaduna, LGAM commended and appreciated PERL for supporting the Kaduna State government to carry out reforms to strengthen local government public financial management system, policy and strategy, public service management and, monitoring & evaluation.
LGAM team said the support of PERL was acknowledged in advancing transparency, accountability and community engagement especially in the budget process.
According the team as a result, the amended Local Government Reform Law mandates the Councils to operate a culture of participatory governance.
“The 23 LGAs now have Local Government Development Plan that allows for community participation in project execution.
“Furthermore, due to support to the Community Development Charter (CDC) process, with community actors trained champions, community inputs now inform and influence local government annual budgets.
“The impact of this supported has indeed translated into improved service delivery with evidence of citizens’ inputs and ownership. The instance of the Council Chairman of Igabi LGA was given as he allocated all the LFTAS grant to a primary school nominated by the citizens’ group.
“LGAM committed to working assiduously to ensure that most of the reforms are sustained and service delivery, improved for the betterment of the people at the grassroots.”
The PERL team commended the Local Government Accountability Mechanism (LGAM) for its continuing activities in strengthening citizens’ engagement and local government reforms.
Furthermore, they acknowledge the effort of LGAM in ensuring that the Local Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, Sustainability (LFTAS) program performance grants to the 23 LGAs.
They stressed that PERL is
committed to continue to support the mechanism to ensure that the ongoing local government reforms are institutionalized and sustained.
The LGAM representatives comprise of Usman Adamu from
Igabi LGA, Abdullazeez Isa
Kaduna North LGA and Yusuf Ishaku Goje presented the awards to Reform Manager of ARC and State Lead Facilitator of ECP of the PERL program.
