The Ministry of Finance said the 36 States and the FCT had agreed to reform their finances and those of local governments under a Fiscal Sustainability Programme to ensure their long term viability.

This is contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja by the Special Assistant Media Adviser to the Minister of Finance, Mr Festus Akanbi.

According to the statement, the ultimate objective of the programme is to ensure that states were set on a path of fiscal sustainability.

“The 22-point fiscal reform action plan mirrors the ongoing public financial management reforms being undertaken by the Federal Government.

“They have agreed to start a biometric capture of all civil servants, the establishment of an Efficiency Unit, implementation of Continuous Audit, and improvement in Independently Generated Revenue.

“The Federal Government is developing a financial support structure which will be directly tied to the attainment of agreed fiscal reform milestones’’, it stated.
It stated also that the plan included measures to help the states achieve sustainable debt management.