4 YEARS INTO THE LIFE OF MALLAM NASIR EL-RUFAI AS GOVERNOR OF KADUNA

Achievements Of Governor El-Rufai

Governance:

The administration of Governor El-Rufai hit the ground running in 2015 by introducing state-wide reforms aimed at cutting the cost of governance and achieving efficiency in public service. First, El-Ruiafi and his deputy announced a 50% slash on their salaries and allowances

Next government ministries were trimmed from 19 to 14. So, also the number of commissioners from 24 to 15. The cabinet led by El-Rufai was shrunk in size but highly effective. This, according to the governor, was to free up resources used in running the government for public goods. In 2015, for example, budgetary allocation for running Government House was around N3 billion (2015 under PDP) but was reduced to about N600 million in the first budget ever prepared by this administration in 2016.

Kaduna's public service was gulping N2.7 billion monthly when El-Rufai took power in May 2015. This was brought down to N2.2 billion after the biometric exercise to verify employees in the state payroll, an exercise that eliminated ghost workers saving the state N500 million monthly.

Implementing Treasury Single Account:

In August 2015, at the onset of this administration, Kaduna state pioneered the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) regarded as a policy tool that helps reduce waste and leakages. Kaduna State requested its bankers to close all government accounts and to remit the balances to the state’s TSA at the Central Bank. Having conducted a prior census of government accounts, Kaduna was given a baseline figure of 324 accounts belonging to ministries, departments, and agencies. When the banks submitted evidence of closure of government accounts, the government was surprised that there were 470 accounts from which N24.5bn were remitted to the state’s TSA.

Adoption of Zero Based Budgeting:

Kaduna State adopted zero-based budgeting because budgets were not based on realistic estimates of revenues and thus did not deliver results, economic development or social cohesion. Zero-based budgeting ensures a result in a state budget that is credible, realistic and makes the best use of state resources. Adopting the budgeting System means that every expenditure item must be justified in term of its necessity, cost, and availability -of funds, vis-a-vis other competing needs before it can be included in the budget.

Transparent Public Procurement:

Further moves were taken to institute
 transparency in public procurement with the passing of the Public Procurement Law, 2016 and the creation of Kaduna Public Procurement Agency (KADPPA).

All tenders for procurements and contracts are published and bidden opened and transparently conducted.

Kaduna state-imposed transparency and accountability in managing public finances by publishing its audited financial accounts annually on its official website and the national dailies. By this, citizens and bodies can scrutinize the state accounts.

Adoption of IPSAS Accounting Reporting:
Furthermore, Kaduna state also adopted the International Public-Sector Accounting Standards-IPSAS aimed at improving transparency and accountability in public finance management and reporting, a step that got the commendation of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria.

This required all assets and liabilities of the State Government to be properly recognized, measured, presented and disclosed in line with the requirement of IPSAS to provide better information for public sector financial management and decision making.

Signing up to Open Governance Partnership (OGP):

In September 2017, Kaduna state government signed up to Open Governance Partnership (OGP) as the first sub-national in the world to do so. By this, Kaduna has committed itself to permit citizens participation in governance and to run an open and transparent governance. OGP is principally designed to improve fiscal transparency, anti-corruption, access to information and citizens engagements and empowerment.

Annual Publication of Audited Account:

Since 2016, Kaduna state has consistently published its audited accounts on national dailies and online. This is to allow the public access and scrutinise the state’s financial transactions, further entrenching accountability and transparency in government affairs.

Local Government Reforms:

El-Rufai moved to save the Local Government Councils from the huge burden of carrying over-bloated civil servants and traditional rulers, whose burden hindered them from rendering services to the grassroots, a major constitutional mandate of the local government councils. As at May 2015 when El-Rufai took power, 15 LGAs were unable to pay salaries and allowances without support from the state government.
This meant the LGAs could not implement capital projects.

The Government implemented a Staffing Order for LGAs in November 2017 which saw to the reduction of the staff strength of the 23 Local Government Councils of the State to 6,896, excluding primary school teachers and health workers.

By that Order, all the Generic Local Government Councils are required to have a total of 281 staff each, with a total of 5943 staff for the 21 Local Government Councils.

The state Government also restructured the Traditional Institutions reverting to pre-2001 status of 77 districts and 1429 village units, down from 390 districts and 5882 village units created in 2001. Government’s decision has relieved the 23 Local Government Councils of the heavy burden of paying 4766 staff to make them concentrate on meeting the obligation of providing public goods and services to the people with the resource available to them.

As of today, all the LGAs have become solvents, able to pay salaries monthly and execute projects without encumbrances.

Implementing a planned programme- (SDP 2016-2020)

The need to implement the restoration program, which is the APC Kaduna version of APC Manifesto on a sustainable basis led to the development of Kaduna State Development Plan (SDP 2016-2020).  The document serves as a medium-term goal of APC change platform which reflects the state government's desire to restore Kaduna State to its lost glory through a planned, orderly and coherent development of the state.

This five-year plan outlines the aspirations of the state government to restore Kaduna to its former glory, including a strategic framework to realize the vision, resource projections to guide and prioritize expenditure, and an implementation plan to deliver results and monitor progress.

The goals were linked to the budget through the Sector Implementation Plans (SIPs) with strengthened budget and expenditure management systems and processes.
Infrastructure Masterplan

The recognition that modern infrastructure is critical for the basic needs and comforts of its citizens and fundamental for strategically positioning of Kaduna State for business and industry, the administration of El-Rufai sets to address the dysfunctional infrastructure that fraught the state.

This led to the development of the Kaduna Infrastructure Master Plan (KADIMP 2018-2050), a 32-year plan aimed at addressing the state's infrastructure needs. Implementing Kaduna State Infrastructure Master Plan requires the sum of $65.6b (N20 trillion) from government spending, private sector investment and support from development partners.

This bold vision is anchored on a long-term perspective, 2018-2050, in the hope that government, the private sector, communities and external partners will work together to achieve the ambitious targets set.

New Agencies created for essential services:

A bid to make government organizations service-oriented led to the restructuring of some government agencies and creation of new ones driven by innovations and technology to provide services using best global practices. They include:

• Geographic Information Service (KADGIS), created to the digitized land registry and spearhead the registration of all lands and properties in the state, ending a regime of land racketeering, fraud, and maladministration.
• The Kaduna Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS) was created to replace the old Internal Revenue Service, serving as the sole agency collecting tax and revenues for the state and the 23 local government councils. In its two years of operations, KADIRS has eclipsed previous records of revenue collected in the state without having to increase revenues for taxpayers. In 2016, Kaduna's IGR rose from 11bn (2015) to N23 billion. This was further raised to N28 billion in 2017. KADIRS is moving towards achieving complete automation and has since banned cash transactions in revenue collections, blocked leakages and eliminated multiple taxations which were discouraging businesses in the state.

• KASTELEA to handle road traffic control, State vigilante service,
• Drugs and Substance Abuse Control Agency,
• Kaduna State Transport Regulation Authority,
• Kaduna Roads Agency-KADRA,
• Kaduna Peace Commission,
• Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency (KADIPA),
• Kaduna Facility Management Agency (KADFAMA),
• Kaduna Water Service Regulatory Commission among others.
• Kaduna State Power Supply Company (KAPSCO)
• Kaduna Contributory Health Insurance Authority.

E-voting: On 12th May 2018, the people of Kaduna State made history when they chose new leaders for our local government councils using electronic voting.

The Commission has also fixed Wednesday, 6th June 2018 to conduct rescheduled elections in some of the local government areas.

In a state broadcast in December 2017, Governor Nasir El-Rufai had explained that the implementation of the Public Service Reform and Revitalisation requires the recruitment of professional and skilled staff to perform important functions in the 23 local government councils. During the broadcast Malam El-Rufai assured that the Local Government Commission would soon issue a recruitment notice in this regard.
Prior to the broadcast, the 23 local government councils had successfully implemented the restructuring and staffing order which prescribed maximum staff strengths and deployments for each of them. Following that exercise, the Local Government Service Commission has identified vacant positions in 46 professional fields that need to be filled to enhance capacity in the local councils.