- By Comrade Olabode Akinwale
Public cash is a commonwealth, not non-public inheritance. Each naira entrusted to authorities carries an obligation to enhance the lives of residents. In Ondo State, the administration of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has made prudent administration of public assets a central plank of its governance, insisting that authorities funds should serve growth and the welfare of the folks.
Ondo State is richly endowed, from its cocoa and agricultural belt to grease and gasoline, strong minerals, tourism, schooling and a rising enterprise neighborhood. However pure and human assets alone don’t assure prosperity. The true take a look at is how responsibly public assets are managed and translated into roads, faculties, hospitals, water, safety, jobs, agriculture, industrial progress and alternatives for younger folks.
Towards this background, the selection of Mrs Omowumi Isaac as Commissioner for Finance has been vital. Because the state’s chief monetary supervisor, she has introduced a disciplined method to public finance, with emphasis on due course of, accountability and expenditure planning. Her supporters imagine her skilled expertise and coaching have strengthened the administration’s monetary administration and contributed to improved financial stability.
Below the current administration, the Finance Ministry has additionally been credited with serving to to maintain common cost of employees’ salaries. Civil servants, in accordance with the administration, now obtain their salaries on or earlier than the twenty eighth of each month. For a workforce that is determined by predictable revenue to satisfy household obligations, such regularity is not a minor achievement.
One other main problem inherited by the federal government was the buildup of unpaid gratuities owed to retired civil servants. For years, many retirees waited for his or her entitlements, with some dealing with extreme hardship. The Aiyedatiwa administration says it has paid a considerable portion of the excellent gratuities, whereas efforts proceed to course of and pay the remaining obligations. Clearing such liabilities is not merely an accounting train; it is a matter of justice to individuals who served the state.
Authorities is skilled by residents not via funds paperwork however via what they see and really feel of their communities. A farmer notices the highway to his farm. A dealer notices whether or not items can attain the market. A affected person notices whether or not a hospital has personnel and tools. A pupil notices whether or not a college gives a useful studying surroundings. The accountability is particularly essential at a time when residents anticipate each naira to ship worth. Fiscal prudence should subsequently stay inseparable from growth planning, service supply and the administration’s accountability to guard the general public curiosity.
This is why monetary self-discipline issues. Correct planning ought to be certain that contracts are backed by obtainable funds earlier than they’re awarded and that contractors are paid for satisfactorily accomplished work after due course of necessities are met. Such a system can cut back deserted initiatives, accrued liabilities and the temptation to award contracts with out a life like financing plan. The administration inherited a number of uncompleted initiatives, and its choice to proceed, rehabilitate or full viable initiatives ought to be judged by the worth delivered to residents. New highway and flyover initiatives, the federal government maintains, are being supported by funding preparations designed to stop the recurrence of initiatives that turn out to be stranded as a result of of insufficient financing.
The broader precept ought to be clear: accountability is not elective. Public assets should be traceable, correctly documented and deployed for identifiable public functions. Digitalisation and stronger monetary controls may also help authorities monitor expenditure, cut back leakages and make it more durable for public funds to vanish with out an audit path. The Finance Ministry’s function subsequently extends past balancing figures. It should create the fiscal area required to fund schooling, healthcare, infrastructure and human growth. The administration says it has elevated subventions to state-owned tertiary establishments by 60 per cent, whereas points affecting the Owo Polytechnic have obtained consideration.
Healthcare additionally gives a sensible measure of whether or not public cash is reaching the folks. The recruitment and deployment of greater than 2,000 well being employees, alongside investments in 500-bed-capacity well being amenities throughout the state’s 18 native authorities areas, characterize vital expenditure. Their actual worth, nonetheless, will in the end be measured by whether or not sufferers obtain higher and extra accessible care.
Equally, the federal government’s OUR EASE well being initiative, agricultural programmes and empowerment schemes ought to be assessed by their influence on peculiar folks. Farmers want well timed assist and market entry. Younger folks want expertise, capital and alternatives. Communities want roads and primary infrastructure. Public spending turns into significant solely when it produces measurable enhancements in folks’s lives. The identical precept applies throughout Ondo State, from the northern communities to the riverine areas within the south. Improvement should be balanced, and authorities should be certain that no neighborhood is completely excluded from public funding.
Those that search public assets for personal enrichment ought to subsequently perceive that the period of indiscriminate spending should finish. Public workplace is short-term. Political energy modifications fingers, appointments expire, and elections come and go. However the penalties of waste and corruption can stay with residents for many years. A era can lose academic alternatives as a result of funds meant for faculties have been wasted. Communities can stay remoted as a result of assets meant for roads have been diverted. Hospitals can lack important tools as a result of cash supposed for healthcare was mismanaged. Corruption is subsequently not merely a monetary crime; it is a direct assault on growth and the longer term of residents.
Ondo State deserves a governance tradition through which competence, integrity, transparency and outcomes matter. Public officers ought to be judged not by the scale of their political entourages however by the standard of their achievements; not by what they accumulate personally however by what they contribute to the folks. The target ought to be easy: an Ondo State the place public assets are invested properly, establishments are strengthened, companies can develop, younger folks can discover alternatives and communities can stay up for a greater future. Ondo cash belongs to Ondo folks. It ought to be used for Ondo growth. Anybody in search of to show the state’s treasury into a personal purse ought to look elsewhere. The period of wastefulness should finish.
·Comrade Olabode Akinwale writes from Akure, Ondo State.
