Government Planners and Schedule Officers involved in Monitoring and Evaluating government expenditures and projects in Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), have been tasked to embrace the Result-Based Monitoring (RBM) system, an evaluation mechanism used in tracking the impacts of government expenditures on the citizenry.

          Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr. Olaolu Olabimtan gave the charge in Abeokuta, during a 2-day capacity building on Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Model and Result Frameworks, said the system is in line with the dictates of international best practices, towards enshrining Public Financial Management systems for improved service delivery.

          Olabimtan described RBM as a powerful public management tool that could be adopted by government officials and policymakers, to track the implementation progress on projects/programmes and policy, as well as demonstrate the impacts of government interventions on the people.

           “The idea of a virile M&E system is to make public officials and programme implementers accountable for the quantum of public spending and efficient utilisation of public finances”, he maintained.    

          Olabimtan acknowledged the support of the Ogun State Economic Transformation Project (OGSTEP), a World bank-assisted project for sponsoring and facilitating the training, conceived to strengthen the State's Statistical Masterplan and M&E apparatus, as well as ensure the effective implementation of all government programmes and projects, towards increased private participation at improving the business- enabling environment.

       The Commissioner added that the present administration had embarked on a series of project implementation mechanisms to move the State forward, which include, the creation of the State Technical Working Committee on Monitoring and Evaluation, Domestication of the National M&E Policy, as well as the creation of M&E Units across MDAs.

          Contributing, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mrs. Olufunmilayo Dada explained that the roles of M&E officers in quality service delivery cannot be overemphasised, hence the need to ensure proper implementation of projects for good governance.

          In her remark, the OGSTEP Project Coordinator, Mrs. Mosun Owo-Odunsi, represented by the OGSTEP TVET Specialist, Mr. Eyo Unyimeabasi, urged MDAs to adopt the mechanism, as it enables the public sector to focus on monitoring performance and evaluating long term result of projects and programmes in the State.

          Explaining the gains of the training, one of the participants, Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Hospitals Management Board, Dr. Wellington Ogunsanya, said the capacity building has widened their knowledge on M&E intervention, promising that the skills acquired would be put to good use.