Akwa Ibom government has denied any extra-budgetary expenditure in the 2019 fiscal year as claimed by a section of the media.
It stated that the false media report arose from an error in coding in the use of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) in the accounting system adopted by the state government.
Ini Ememobong, commissioner for information and strategy who made the clarification while addressing a press conference said as soon as the error was spotted, it was quickly withdrawn from circulation.
According to him, the alleged extra-budgetary expenditure was based on wrong information adding that the state government had taken immediate steps to correct the error.
Ememobong who was addressing the press conference alongside his counterparts in the ministry of finance, Linus Nkan and that of Economic Development, Akan Okon explained that a memo was issued by the state to correct the error when it was noticed.
“We had withdrawn the erroneous copy of a section of the budget, a new copy is now in use. What was spent was in line with the approved 2019 budget,” he said.
“We are conscious of the weighty nature of extra budget expenditure which must be publicly addressed,” he said.
The commissioner who apologised on behalf of the state government for the initial error noted that humans, there were bound to be mistakes and errors in human activities.
In his remarks, Akan Okon, commissioner for economic development and Ibom deep seaport maintained that ” there was no extra-budgetary expenditure adding that “all the expenditure was in line with the approved budget.”
Noting that the annual account of the state is always derived from the state’s budget emphasized that the budget was prepared using IPSAS which he said had been widely acclaimed as the best.
He said the new memo issued by the state government had invalidated the erroneous information as contained in the state’s annual account.
In his contributions, Linus Nkan lauded the involvement of the citizens in the budget tracking as seen in the interest by the media adding that the state government has always sought the input of youths, traditional rulers, professional bodies in the preparation of its budget.
He gave an assurance that with Governor Udom Emmanuel, an acclaimed finance expert, the resources of the state would continue to be properly managed.
A section of the media had alleged that the state government had indulged in extra-budgetary expenditure in the purchase of luxury cars involving Prado jeeps in the state.
