Civic advocacy group, BudgIT, has apologised to the Lagos State Government for a misrepresentation in its latest State of States Report.
In the report released last Thursday, the organization included Lagos among states with chronic deficits, borrowing to pay salaries.
However, in a series of tweets on Sunday, the organization reported that it had retracted the previous graphic on the capacity of states to fulfill their recurring expenditure circulated as part of the report.
According to Gabriel Okeowo, BudgIT ‘s CEO and Principal Lead, “No single metric, when isolated, provides a fair assessment of any state; and none of the tests we used evaluates state’s fiscals for insolvency.”
According to Mr. Gabriel Okeowo, BudgIT’s CEO and Principal Lead, “No single metric, when isolated, provides a fair assessment of any state; and none of the tests we used evaluates state’s fiscals for insolvency.”
— BudgIT Nigeria (@BudgITng) September 27, 2020
BudgIT therefore claimed that it was obliged to give its unreserved apologies to the government of Lagos for the misrepresentation of the state in the report.
“Indeed, @followlasg (Lagos State Government) cannot be included in the category of States with a recurrent deficit; thus, not borrowing to pay salaries,” BudgIT said.
“Our metrics focused on NET FAAC and IGR as published by the National Bureau of Statistics due to the disparate nature of revenue framework among Nigerian states.
“We also apologise for including a special debt financing program as part of the recurrent expenditure which might be a total representation of its finances.”
Indeed, @followlasg cannot be included in the category of States with a recurrent deficit; thus, not borrowing to pay salaries.
— BudgIT Nigeria (@BudgITng) September 27, 2020
Our metrics focused on NET FAAC and IGR as published by the National Bureau of Statistics due to the disparate nature of revenue framework among Nigerian states.
— BudgIT Nigeria (@BudgITng) September 27, 2020
We also apologise for including a special debt financing program as part of the recurrent expenditure which might be a total representation of its finances.
— BudgIT Nigeria (@BudgITng) September 27, 2020
BudgIT says it affirms that “Lagos State remains way ahead of many of its peers in terms of fiscal health and the capacity to generate revenue internally; and it also has the least dependency on federally collected revenue distributed through FAAC allocations.”
The earlier study , published on Thursday, showed that Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and 10 other states were unable to finance their recurring expenditure and their loan repayment schedules due in 2019 with their respective revenues.
The study said that the worst hits were the states of Oyo, Kogi, Osun and Ekiti, while the other states on the pendulum were Plateau, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Cross River, Benue, Taraba and Abia.
The study is a signature BugIT study that provides policy makers with thorough insights into how to enact financial and structural changes that will boost fiscal efficiency and sustainability at the national level.
BuddgIT ‘s State of the States study is a snapshot of the fiscal health of all 36 states in the country and uses four metrics or stress tests to provide a fair overall fiscal sustainability score for all states.
BudgIT said on Sunday that a study of the erroneous graph misrepresenting the financial status of Lagos State had begun.
BUDGIT APOLOGISES TO LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT
BudgIT’s State of States report is a snapshot of the fiscal health of all 36 States in the country and it uses four metrics or stress tests to provide a fair overall Fiscal Sustainability Ranking of all the states.
Thread! pic.twitter.com/JrGjx2VQsX
— BudgIT Nigeria (@BudgITng) September 27, 2020
“We regret this inconvenience; hence, the previous design is hereby retracted and a review has been commissioned by our research team,” the organisation said.