The USAID, in partnership with the Kebbi State Government, Northwest Nigeria has embarked on capacity building of the state’s health finance personnel to reduce issues related to external audit queries.
The State2State Lead Team in Kebbi State, Usman Faleye, stated this on Wednesday on the sideline of a three-day training for health financial specialists of the Kebbi State Ministry of Health at Soul Care Hotel, Sokoto.
The training of the state accountants, directors of finance and cashiers from the state ministry, and other health MDAs focused on how best to improve on their internal control system and ensure prudent in financial transactions.
Faleye explained that State2State, being a public financial management activity, was supporting Kebbi State to improve their allocation and expenditure within the health sector to achieve improvement in the health sector.The training, he added also aimed at how to improve the participants’ skills on how to strengthen their internal control process which has to do with retirements, processing of their memos for approval and ensuring that all of the right documentations are in place for pursuing financial processes in the ministry.
Faleye noted that there are increasing audit issues as far as the financial work is concerned and to avoid future problems, especially within the health MDAs, hence the need for training.
He stressed, “We also want to be sure that the right monies are released for the right allocation as already captured in the budget.
“As such, it would replace more on prudence and could reduce waste and the prevailing of frauds within the health MDAs.
“The trainees are expected to improve their capacity on the new method of how attaining their payment vouchers, how to fill their cash book and effectively and adequately report financially all their activities within the ministry,” Faleye emphasised.
In his remark, Faruk Sarki Kigo, the Permanent Secretary, Kebbi State Ministry of Finance said the idea of the training was to ensure proper internal control from the top management down to the cashier level so as to detect, prevent and correct some of the problems that hinder financial transactions.
Kigo expressed optimistic that the knowledge acquired during the training will have an impact on detecting and solving some issues of financial predicament facing the health ministry and other related MDAs in state.
The Kebbi PS noted further that whenever approvals are given by the state governor, the next step is to raise a payment voucher and question on how the vouchers are made, from the relevant deductions to be made down to payment point under the Ministry of Finance .
He stressed that capacity building training will expose the participants to the rudiments of preparing payment vouchers in conformity with the accepted financial regulations .
Also, Dr Jibril Labbo Gwandu, the Director, Medical Services in state Ministry of Health noted that the training was organised to acquaint the health financing experts with the internal control mechanism, and the way to keep proper records, to answer audits queries to avoid in the first instance and improve their financial transactions and accountability.
Gwandu insisted, “It is a very important training in the sense that it has gathered all the MDAs in health, so it will be another peer review learning workshop.
“The coming of the State2State in Kebbi State has been a very wonderful job as we must note that we are in the mid-term developmental strategy for the health sector.
“Although, State2State came to Kebbi State a bid late compared to other states, but the coming is very important and it has built many capacities, especially in the financial management of Kebbi State Ministry of Health”
Aliyu Ladan, the Kebbi State Deputy Accountant General, Ministry of Finance, pointed out that the training also better aim at how the financial experts can safeguard the assets of the state and keep their records efficiently.
The program is targeted all the more at the Director Finance, Accountants and their cashiers on keeping records and how to make payment vouchers speak to itself.
SOURCE: PUNCH NEWS
