••hides details of spending in Q3 report
…Netizen reacts over governor’s poor transparency profile
By Shadrach Okon
The All Progressives Congress, APC led government of Governor Umo Eno in Akwa Ibom State has again failed to uphold the provisions of Akwa Ibom State Fiscal Responsibility Law 2020.
The Guide Newspaper observed this during the week as the state government presented it’s 2025 third quarter budget performance report.
According to a 3-page report presented by the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Nsikan Nkan as 2025 third quarter Budget Performance Report, the state ‘s revenue between January and September 2025, stood at N1.27 trillion.
A breakdown of the report as presented by the Government of Akwa Ibom State indicates a total of N818.1 billion has been received by the state from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, (FAAC )while N375.69 billion is the opening balance of revenue brought forward to 2025 from the funds not spent in 2024. The state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) stood at N79.05 billion within the period under review.
The report states that the expenditure of the State within the period under review stood at N830.2 billion. According to the breakdown, N103.15 billion was disbursed on personnel costs (including pension and gratuity), N128.08 was spent on “other recurrent costs” while N598.98 billion was consumed by capital projects.
Investigations carried out by the Guide Newspaper revealed that the three Budget Performance Reports so far presented by Akwa Ibom State Government within 2025 fiscal year have omitted the detailed breakdowns usually expected in such reports, such as budget performance by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), functional and administrative classifications and economic categories of expenditure.
According to Public Affairs Analysts, omission of such vital details in the state ‘s Budget Performance Reports contravenes The Akwa Ibom Fiscal Responsibility Law (2020) is clear about the obligation to produce and publish detailed reports of the states fiscal expenditure. The law states:
“(1) The Commissioner responsible for State budget, through the State Budget Office, shall monitor and evaluate the implementation of the annual budget with respect to recurrent estimates, all receipts and payments, assess the attainment of fiscal targets by recurrent expenditure and report thereon on a quarterly basis to the Board and the Finance and Appropriations Committee of the House of Assembly.
(2) The Ministry of Economic Development shall monitor and evaluate the implementation of the annual budget with respect to capital estimates, assess the attainment of fiscal targets and report thereon on a quarterly basis to the Board and the Finance and Appropriations Committee of the House of Assembly.
(3) Each of the foregoing ministries shall cause a summary of their reports to be prepared and submitted to the Board, published in the mass and electronic media and place a full copy on their respective websites, not later than thirty days after the end of each quarter, if no other deadline is provided for in the regulations.”
The phrase “each of the foregoing ministries” — referring to the Ministry of Budget and the Ministry of Economic Development — places a clear legal obligation on both agencies to produce full quarterly reports on recurrent and capital spending.
According to experts, such reports which would help citizens to know whether budgeted projects and services have been delivered or not should include a breakdown by MDAs, as each ministry, department and agency is allocated specific funds under both recurrent and capital budgets.
Reacting to a news report on the Akwa Ibom State Q3 Budget Performance Reports, a social media user, Faith Paulinus said: “It’s quiet sad that we’re again retrogressing from most of the fiscal gains made in recent times, as the details of what the resources of the state has been used for within the period under review has been kept secret.”
“If the state were to be a private business would any CEO accept a financial statement from his manager without a proper breakdown of what funds were used for?
If the government has nothing to hide, why continued publication of incomplete fiscal documents which is a clear breach of the Akwa Ibom state fiscal responsibility laws (2020), the actions of government has again undermined its legal obligation as well eroded public trust,” he added.
