By CHARLES IWUOHA

A coalition of civil society organisations in Ebonyi State has criticised the state government over its failure to qualify for the World Bank-supported HOPE Governance Programme Performance-Based Incentive Grant.

It described the development as a major setback for governance, education and primary healthcare in the state.

The coalition, led by the Human Rights Volunteer Corps (Prof Joseph Agbo) Human Rights Action Group (Charles Out) and Good Living Initiative made its position known in a press statement issued in Abakaliki.

Speaking on Friday behalf of the coalition, Professor Joseph Agbo, said the state lost the opportunity to access about $27 million under the World Bank programme after failing to meet key governance and public financial management performance indicators.

According to the coalition, Ebonyi was among the states that failed to qualify for the incentive grant because it did not satisfy conditions relating to fiscal transparency, budget publication, public financial reporting and reforms in the education and primary healthcare sectors.

The group described the development as particularly unfortunate for a state it said continues to face significant poverty and developmental challenges.

It alleged that Ebonyi failed to publish critical fiscal documents within stipulated timelines, including its budget before the March 31 deadline, citizens’ budgets and other financial reports required for public accountability.

The coalition said while 19 states successfully accessed the World Bank incentive funds, Ebonyi missed out due to what it described as weak institutional governance and poor compliance with transparency requirements.

Presenting what it called findings from its independent investigation, the coalition cited reports by BudgIT, the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), the Ebonyi State Government’s Debt Sustainability Analysis, Premium Times and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR).

According to the group, the reports indicate declining fiscal transparency, incomplete public financial reporting, weak citizen accountability mechanisms, rising public debt, increasing debt servicing obligations, poor capital budget implementation, heavy dependence on federal allocations and procurement risk indicators.

It noted that official budget implementation reports showed that by the second quarter of 2025, only about 11.3 per cent of the state’s capital budget had been implemented, while implementation rose to about 19.1 per cent by the third quarter.

The coalition also expressed concern over the state’s growing debt profile and increasing allocations for debt servicing, saying these could limit resources available for development projects.

It further referenced an ICIR investigation into classroom construction contracts worth about N6.02 billion, which reportedly highlighted repeated single-bid awards, recently incorporated companies and other procurement risk indicators requiring independent scrutiny.

The coalition, however, stated that its findings pointed more to institutional weaknesses in public financial management than direct evidence of corruption or theft.

“Our investigation shows that international development partners increasingly reward measurable governance performance, transparency, accountability and institutional credibility, not rhetoric,” the statement read.

The coalition urged Governor Francis Nwifuru’s administration to place greater emphasis on governance reforms rather than political publicity.

It also called on the government to investigate alleged activities of illegal revenue collectors, which it claimed were discouraging investors from doing business in the state.

The group recommended improvements in fiscal governance, procurement integrity, budget implementation, internally generated revenue, legislative oversight and public access to government financial information.

It said strengthening these areas would improve accountability, enhance institutional credibility and increase public confidence in the management of Ebonyi State’s finances.

The Ebonyi State Government had yet to respond to the allegations as of the time of filing this report.