Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, on Tuesday, presented an appropriation bill of N242.283 billion for the 2020 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly for consideration two months after he assumed office.
The governor while presenting his maiden budget estimate tagged, “Consolidation for Prosperity 2020,” said the appropriation bill defines the structure for the economic activities to be undertaken in the fiscal year.
The appropriation bill set aside the sum of N51.646 billion for personnel costs, N52.327 billion for overhead and N91.478 billion for consolidated revenue fund charges while N46.736 billion for capital spending.
The Ministry of Works and Transport, as shown in the Appropriation Bill breakdown, has the largest sum of N8.6billion earmarked for its operations and closely followed by the Ministry of Agriculture with N8billion.
Education got N2.1billion, health N1.75billion, Power and Water Resources, N800million, Housing and Urban Development, N640million, Sports, N580million andTrade, Industry, and Investment got the sum of N430.9million.
While making his presentation yesterday, the governor assured the people of the state that his administration will take proactive measure in the budget to cushion the effect of the economic downturn in the state by intensely interacting with the Federal Government, the Central Bank, and the multilateral agencies like the world bank to enable successful budget drive by the government.
Diri buttressed that the policy thrust of his administration in the next four years remains consolidating on the gains already made by the previous government as his administration will embark on special programmes and projects aimed at wealth creation and he also encourage the people to participate in agriculture, small and medium scale enterprises and create opportunities toward attracting the private sector for industrialisation.
Speaking on the current economic outlook, he said there is a need for prudent management of resources as a result of the ravaging effect of COVID-19 on the global economy.
“The price of crude oil has nosedived drastically as against the Federal Government’s benchmark pegged at $55 per barrel thus affecting revenue from statutory allocations from the Federation Account. As part of efforts to reduce the cost of governance and enhance transparency, the human resources, financial reporting, budgeting, and procurement component of the state’s Integrated Financial Management Information System (SIFMIS) will be fully implemented this year.” He said.
He further assured that his administration would continue with the implementation of the approved minimum wage for workers by Federal Government adding that the payment of gratuity arrears had already commenced for pensioners.
In his remarks, Speaker of the House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Abraham Ingobere lauded Governor Diri and his team for the steps taken by his administration to curtail the spread of COVID-19 into the state stressing the need for the state government to adopt more strategies to raise funds from alternative sources and seek ways to cushion the effects caused by the pandemic.
“The assembly would expedite the passage of the appropriation bill”. The speaker assured.
