STATE OF STATES 2017

Abstract

Many state governments are confronted by rapidly rising budget deficits as they struggle to pay salaries and meet contractual obligations and overheads due to a dip in oil price from its peak price of about $140 per barrel to about $56 per barrel. Over the last few months, state governments have been devising policy changes with strong focus on improving internally generated revenue and reining in expenditure. With this unfavourable outcome, the Federal Government has requested sharp haircuts, reforms and a high degree of transparency — including the publishing of budget proposals, the enacted budget, budget implementation reports, audit reports, and quarterly and annual reports for stateowned enterprises — as a precondition for further support. However, this has not been adhered to with the required tenacity.