John Abah, Chairman, Kogi House of Assembly Committee on Appropriation and Budget Monitoring on Monday, said that the House would ensure effective implementation of 2017 state’s Budget.
Abah, who spoke with journalists at the end of the Budget Defence by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Lokoja also said the budget would be passed within few days.
He expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the budget defence by the MDAs, an exercise he said started on Feb. 8.
“We got impressive reports from the MDAs.By the grace of God, we will do some amendments based on the defence we had and within the shortest time possible.
“We are going to pass the budget so that with the new direction, government will hit the ground running for 2017,” he said.
Abah, however, noted that from the debate on the general principles of the budget, it looked bogus and very ambitious.
“We say it is bogus because of its revenue estimates which gave rise to the expenditures, we will make sure government aggressively pursue the projections it made.
“We will also supervise the revenue expenditures, both recurrent and capital. ”It is the capital expenditure that forms a very substantial part of the budget.
“We will ensure that in our oversight functions, we follow the budget up and ensure it is fully and judiciously implemented.”
Gov. Yahaya Bello on Dec. 22, 2016 presented the 2017 Appropriation Bill of N174.8 billion to the state House of Assembly for deliberation and approval.
Tagged ‘Budget of New Direction’, the governor said the budget was based on estimated recurrent revenue of N81.66 billion and capital receipt of N93.18 billion.
