USAID S2S Activity supports Gombe to profile, consolidate 104 MDAs Expenditure
The United States Agency International Development; State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness State to State Activity has held a four-day technical session with officers from various Ministries Departments and Agencies on how to prepare the 2023 Budget Profile and Cash Plan.
The technical session which held at the Emerald Royal Hill Hotel Gombe, had in attendance representative of the Gombe State Accountant General, officers from the Gombe State Revenue Service, Ministries of Health, Water Resources, Education, Gombe State Water Board, State Universal Basic Education Board, Budget Planning and Partner Coordination office, Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency and Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency.
During the session, participants were taken through cash planning templates, procedures for populating the MDA submission and consolidation templates, current architecture and timeliness for the Preparation of cash plan in gombe and provisions of the Gombe State cash management strategy by the States to State Public Finance Management Technical Director and Specialist
There were also hands on sessions were participants did a profiling and consolidation of 104 MDAs Expenditure in Gombe State .
Earlier in an address, the Representative of the Gombe State Accountant General who is also the Director Final Accounts office of the accountant general, Alhaji Mohammad Yusuf Kulani, appreciated State to State for the partnership with Gombe State Government on Public Finance Management activities, saying what is being thought is the best practice globally.
On his part, The Gombe State Team Lead of S2S activity Abubakar Mohammad, said Gombe State has committed civil servants and with support of the State Government, State to State is gaining more recognition in Gombe State
He said State to State would continue to make positive impact in the state, while soliciting for more support from the government and people of Gombe State.
Stating the objectives of the technical assistance session, the PFM Specialist Gombe office, Oluwatosin Oke, said the engagement was geared towards training participants on principles and processes of annual cash planning and prepare 2023 budget profile and cash plan.
He said, “key factors for effective implementation included preparation of annual work plan and procurement plan,preparation of cash disbursement schedule ,monthly performance data entry into the consolidation sheet,quarterly review of the consolidation sheet to reflect the dynamism of public finance Committee.”
In an interview with PERISCOPE NIGERIA, the Director Final Accounts office of the Accountant General’s office, Alhaji Mohammad Yusuf Kulani, said budget profiling means all MDAs should profile their activities for the year according to their budgetary allocation so that they would know which activities come in which month.
Kulani said, “Not all government activities are done at the same time.The training will help the MDAs to identify the correct time of implementing activities make adequate projection so that they can profile their budget and submit to the accountant general for implementation.
“The participants were also thought on cash planning strategy, that is they forecast the revenue they anticipate to receive in the future and they match such revenue with expenditure that was presented In the cash requirement so that wastage will be avoided.”
“By wastage we mean for instance in January, you anticipate to receive revenue of N5b and in your expenditure from the budget profiling you are to spend two points N5b that means you have excess of N2.5b so it can help the accountant General and commissioner of finance and whoever is responsible to take a decision on what to do with surplus either to invest in the short-term or long run,” he explained.
He added that budget profiling also help to look at future expenditure, adding that “For example in your cash planning strategy in September you envisage to get N3b, but the budget profiling is N6b that would be spent.So you have a deficit of three billion naira, so you can make use of that savings that came from January and Invest it against september so that when mature it can cover for the deficit,” According to Kulani.
Also, Hajiya Lami Mohammed, head of Treasury Operations office of the Accountant General Gombe State, said they went through the profiling for all MDAs in the state and developed a 2023 cash plan which is one of the responsibilities of the Accountant General.
According to Mohammed, cash plan would help government take decision on various inflows as well as guide it on how to plan it spending activities in the treasury House.
“Cash planning is very important even in our daily lives we need to plan how to spend our salary at the end of the day. So is government ,with cash planning, it will have the foresight of what is expecting in the future and how to go about managing it finances and seeing how to improve it activities and other developmental projects for the state,” She added
