We never said any state can’t pay salaries, BudgIT replies Akwa Ibom

BudgIT, a data simplifying civic organisation, says it never at any point in its state of states report, claim that any state cannot pay salaries, but only presented publicly verifiable facts.

After releasing its state of states factsheet, the Akwa Ibom state government referred to BudgIT’s analysis as voodoo analysis.

In its response, shared with TheCable, BudgIT said its report was as a result of data available in the public domain, expressing willingness to iron out areas of misunderstanding.

“We clearly stated the source of data used in our report and for the avoidance of doubt, we will restate it again. Debt Management Office provided the debt profile data, and the data is publicly available,” BudgIT said.

“On revenue, the Office of Accountant General of the Federation publishes monthly FAAC Allocation, including 13% Share of Derivation and Value Added Tax. National Bureau of Statistics published the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) data of states for 2015. The data on state budgets as published by various states and widely reported in the media.

“The report is clear as it relates to each state and we encourage everyone to read the report. Since our report is data based and opinion free, we encourage those challenging its accuracy to provide their data and state source as we have done.

“As an organisation keen to assist the states to overcome the challenges identified in the report, we will not join words with Akwa Ibom State Government. Rather, we will seek for an opportunity to discuss the report with them so as to address areas of misunderstanding.”

BudgIT categorically stated that it only rated states in the same manner it is done across the world, and never at any point stated that one state or the other could not pay salaries.

“We also want to state that we never said any State cannot pay salaries. The numbers in the factsheet are strictly about recurrent surplus which is the anchor used in rating sub-nationals (States) across the world.

“We equally understand that some states borrow funds or seek grants to make up for the revenue shortfall. Our IGR projections are based on a fair assessment of previous collections.

“We will be glad to go over any numbers put forward by Akwa Ibom State Government or any of their representatives. On comments by Mr Bismarck Rewane, I can only say he has the deepest respect of our organisation.”