Gov. Idris Wada of Kogi on Wednesday presented an appropriation bill of N110,212,838,567 for the 2015 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly for deliberation and approval.
Presenting the budget tagged ”Budget of Stability” on the floor of the house at the Assembly Complex in Lokoja, Wada said the total budget outlay was balanced.
He said that a total of N50,159,236,997 representing 45.51 per cent was for Recurrent Expenditure while N60,053,601,570 representing 54.49 per cent was for Capital Expenditure.
The expenditure outlay was focused on administration, Economic, Law and Justice and Social Services adding that the specific objective of of the 2015 budget was effective allocation of scarce resources among identified critical programmes and projects.
The areas according to the governor include completion of on-going projects, expansion of the state revenue base, provision of coded classifications for enhanced transparency and proper accounting in public expenditure.
Other areas include reduction of State Domestic Debt Profile, production of a conducive environment for investors and donor agencies to operate in the state and integration of the structure of the state chart of account in budgeting and budgeting control mechanism at state and Local Government levels.
Wada said 2014 witnessed a widening variance between budgetary projections for statutory allocation and actual execution.
”The fiscal year in review saw us, more often than not, walking the financial tight-rope”, he said.
Speaker of the house, Alhaji Momoh-Jimoh Lawal said the house through its committee and oversight activities had given budget implementation the impetus to effectively and efficiently deliver dividends of democracy to the people.
The speaker said though the budget was presented ‘very late’, ”We shall work extra hard to pass the budget at record time for you to commence in earnest the phase of your Transformation Agenda in the New Year. (NAN)
