2024 Budget: Delta Government reels out phone number for projects monitoring, situation reports

In its effort and determination to ensure transparency and accountability as regards the 2024 budget, the Delta state Government has rolled out dedicated telephone numbers for the people of Delta to send in situation reports on ongoing projects in their communities.

Mr Sonny Ekedayen, the State Commissioner for Economic Planning,  disclosed this in Asaba, the Delta state capital.

According to him, the telephone line would complement the efforts of the Ministry’s monitoring and performance evaluation team at ensuring that all projects met the specified quality benchmark.

The phone number given by Mr Ekedayen is 09011862842, saying that Deltans should monitor the performance of contractors executing projects in their localities and send WhatsApp messages with pictures or videos to substantiate anything untoward, without necessarily confronting any contractor or disrupting any project.

He promised more actions and activities in 2024, as against last year which experienced distractions from electioneering campaigns and the general election, noting that Commissioners in the state had signed performance bond with the Governor and were determined to effectively drive the MORE agenda of the Oborevwori administration.

Concerning the 2024 budget, the commissioner emphasized that the state is making frantic effort to ensure that only what would be generated and announced within the economic space would be spent, pointing out that the proposal was loan-free and fully organic, accounting for its smaller size.

Mr Ekedayen said the state’s budget would continue to be funded with about eighty percent revenue from the federation account, with Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) accounting for about twenty percent.

He explained that though the 2024 IGR was put at N110bn baseline, a monthly revenue of N12bn had been projected to rank it up to about N150bn, which would leave the state with a higher budget appropriation figure in the next fiscal year.

The Commissioner solicited the support and cooperation of Deltans, especially in project monitoring and performance evaluation, assuring that any situation report received would be acknowledged and whatever action taken communicated to the one doing the reporting.