Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe on Sunday assured to sustain the state’s leading position in accountability, transparency, and public finance auditing.

The State Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS), a World Bank-assisted programme, and the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative rated Yobe as one of the leading states in accountability in their 2022 reports.

The Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative that rated the performance of Nigerian states on the Subnational Audit Efficacy Index 2022 ranked Yobe as the second-best performing state in Nigeria.

The initiative assessed the operational level of transparency and accountability in the management of public funds and implementation of public policies in the 36 states.

“We will sustain these achievements and build on them for Yobe to remain Nigeria’s leading state in fiscal transparency, accountability, and good governance,’’ Mr Buni assured. 

Mr Buni said his administration would continue to apply prudence in using its public resources to ensure value for money in all policies and programmes executed by the government.

“We are a state with little resources and emerging from more than a decade of security challenges needing resources to rebuild the state and its people.

“There are competing demands amidst little resources to rebuild the state. Therefore, there must be accountability to achieve our set goals.

“The prudence applied in the use of our resources has assisted our administration greatly to execute our legacy projects that were recently commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“I am happy that the report by Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative corroborates that of SFTAS – a World Bank-assisted programme,’’ he said.

SFTAS rated Yobe as the overall best-performing state in Nigeria in accountability, transparency and good governance.

(NAN)