Ike Nnachi, Abakaliki
Ebonyi State Government has denied spending N1.1bn on wildlife conservation as captured in its quarterly budget implementation report.
Commissioner for Information, Jude Okpor, gave the clarification in a statement on Tuesday in Abakaliki, capital of the state.
He was reacting to a report by an online medium with the title “Ebonyi Without Zoo Spends N1.1billion On Wildlife Conservation in Nine Months, Less On Health, Water Provision.”
Mr Okpor described the publication as not well researched and devoid of any iota of truth.
“The writer obviously failed to carry out adequate investigations necessary to authenticate his report,” he said.
The Commissioner explained that the amount of N1.1b recorded against wildlife conservation is an amount meant for contingency item which the approved budget has coded under margin for increase in cost and not wildlife conservation.
“If the author has seen it otherwise, it could probably have been a misplacement or typographic error, which the author who rightly asserted that there is no zoo in Ebonyi, should have resorted to rightful authorities for clarification in line with the ethics of journalism,” he added.
Mr Okpor clarified that the approved budget has a different template from the quarterly budget implementation report template.
He further explained that at the point of population of the quarterly report, which the said publication particularly referred to, the economic code was erroneously imputed.
“In the Approved Budget which the state government spends from, the said amount is under the Contingency Fund.
“It should be clarified also that projects and programmes recorded under Contingency are projects/programmes not envisaged but which came up during budget implementation.
“There is no actual record in the state where such an amount as reported by the media outlet was spent on wildlife conservation. That is an error in transmission,” he said
The Commissioner assured the people of the State that the present administration led by Governor Francis Nwifuru remains committed to its vow of accountability and prudence in the management of the state’s resources.
