The Cross River state commissioner of Finance, Asuquo Ekpenyong Jr. has said he is not interested in the governorship seat of the state come 2023.
This came in response to media critics who have severally accused him of abandoning his work as Cross River State Commissioner of Finance and concentrating on a perceived 2023 gubernatorial ambition.
Ekpenyong, In a press briefing in his office at the Ministry of Finance Complex, Calabar, today, 11th May openly declared to journalists that he has no 2023 gubernatorial ambition, stating that those carrying that about on social media are only misguided.
"I have no intention to vie for office of governor in 2023. Let it be clear; if you can allow me to do the work on my table I will be glad to do and I will be happy that I have added my contribution to the Cross River State Government and thereafter go back to my private sector practice." Ekpenyong said.
The commissioner who has been adjudged to be one of the youngest commissioners in Nigeria used the opportunity to clay some gray areas as regards accusations that his carelessness and incompetence had cost the state a $3 million world bank assisted grants.
According to the Finance boss, the state hasn't lost out of The State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programme which deals with the fiscal activities and responsibilities of the State Government and looks to provide incentives to states so as to meet their fiscal goals.
Ekpenyong informed that SIFTAS is a 3-year program designed by the World Bank to provide incentives to states to meet their financial goals.
Furthermore, Hon. Ekpenyong stated that by the third quarter of this year, Cross River State will be assessed by the Independent Verification Agent of the World Bank, to authenticate the level of transparency of the state, stressing this will enable the state access the grants.
He also explained that for any state to benefit from the program, the are key Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) that must be achieved, explaining that these DLIs are; revenue loss, online publication of Accented budget of the state, sanity of the budget, improvement on revenue generation, implementation of the Biometrics Payroll System (BPS) using the BVN, implementation of the Treasury Single Accounts (TSA), procurement loss of the state amongst other indicators.
Ekpenyong explained that the state couldn't access the grant along side other states in the first batch because World Bank couldn't access the state's audited financial documents although they(World Bank) had the hard copies, but refused to use it because one of the eligibility criteria was access to a published copy of the audited documents.
The commissioner which said that has been sougthed out said as at today, the state have satisfied all eligible criteria for the next batch of the disbursement in August and will receive the grants in full.
"The delay is caused by World Bank's inability to access the budget documents published online, which is not a fault of the state. However, World Bank was able to verify the budget on the 8th of March, 2020."
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