…blames poor implementation of 2016 budget on previous House crisis
By Olatunde Odimayo.
In a bid to avert delay in budget implementation, the Kogi State House of Assembly has reiterated it’s commitment to quick passage of the N174.8b draft budget presented before it by the executive.
Speaker of the sixth Assembly, Rt. Honorable Ahmed Imam gave the hint shortly after supervising various ministries who appeared before the assembly today for their budget defense.
Attributing the poor implementation of past budget to the House leadership tussles, the Speaker noted that the assembly failed to embark on regular oversight functions which can be understood from the backdrop of the crisis that envelope the Assembly in 2016.
While noting that the assembly intend to finish the budget defense process by the end of this week, Imam added that the assembly is projecting at February ending to give the budget an express passage. This, he said will help the executive to fulfill its promise to Kogites.
He promised to ensure proper implementation of the budget through oversight functions when passed into Law.
“The budget, before now, if you study them carefully looks replicative. Of course we drew the attention of his excellency to this and he promised to look into that. This is one of the reasons for the delay in presenting the budget. No doubt certain provision still resurface, even though they actually scored zero in performance”.
“But this time around, we are not just giving it passage, I have actually charged the entire committee chairmen and members to do more of oversight this time, so that we can ensure that the budget perform optimally”, Imam added.
