By: Joseph Upan Undikeye.
SA on Media and Publicity to Member Representing, Obanliku.
The State House of Assembly has reviewed downwards the 2021 approved Budget and Appropriation Bill from N281,990,980,230 to N240, 404,815,286.43 giving a variance of N41,586,164,943.57.
The House passed the revised Budget into law following the report of it’s special Committee on Appropriation headed by Hon Dr Sunday Ikwen Achunekang, Member representing Obanliku State Constituency which was earlier set up to consider the review of the 2021 Budget.
Dr Achunekang stated that the need to revise the 2021 Budget “was part of the State’s response to COVID-19 pandemic which has created social disparities and tensions within the society,”. He added that, “there has been concerted efforts at implementing structured economic policies to reduce the burden on citizens and businesses like the tax exemption initiatives and distribution of welfare packages to mitigate hunger and porverty”.
He also said that carrying out such humanitarian initiatives will enable the State draw from N750m Grant that the Federal Ministry of Finance is providing to States under the State Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainable Programe for Results (SFTAS).
Members in their contributions unanimously adopted the review of the Budget to reflect the current realities in the State.
In the revised Budget, the approved RECURRENT REVENUE of N90,690,851,598 was maintained while the RECURRENT EXPENDITURE was reduced to 57,281,179,236.61 from the approved N77,796,825,824.
Similarly, CAPITAL EXPENDITURE of N204,199,154,406 has been reviewed downwards to 150,026,687,771.00 while STATUTORY EXPENDITURE was increased from 20,363,928,025.57 to 33,096,948,278.82.
The House, after analysing the problems which warranted the review of the 2021 approved Budget urged Heads of MDAs to take full responsibility as they will be held accountable for any breach of the Budget process from inception to implementation.
It also asked all MDAs which carried out any employment since 2015 to forward details of such employment to it in two weeks time and urged the State Government to ensure the training and capacity building of Budget Staff.
On his part, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Eteng Jonah Williams commended the Special Appropriation Committee Chairman and Members respectively for timely presentation of it’s report and directed the Clerk, Barr Bassey Ekpeyong to forward clean copies of the Bill to the Governor for his assent.
It would be recalled that on December 29, 2020, the House passed the 2021 Budget and Appropriation Bill into law with a total Budget size of N281,990,980,230 tagged; “Budget of Blush and Bliss”.
