From Paul Orude, Bauchi
Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed Thursday presented a budget proposal of over N195.3 billion to the state House of Assembly for the 2022 fiscal year.
Governor Mohammed while presenting the budget on at the floor of the House, disclosed that the budget was tagged “budget of consolidation and continuous commitment” aimed ensuring that dividends of democracy reached the common man.
He said that the budget was made up of N110.6 billion capital expenditure, representing 57 per cent and N84.4 billion recurrent expenditure, representing 43 per cent.
The Governor said 2022 proposed Budget is 8.5 % lower than that of the 2021 budget.
He said the reduction was arrived at in order to align the projections with the current economic realities to boost revenue generation drive of the administration.
“The state government has in the course of the preparation of the 2022 Budget taken measures into consideration which includes ensuring the completion of on-going projects only, proposing new projects only on the basis of critical need and the immediate impact it would make on the lives of the people,” he said.
Mohammed stated that other measures include ensuring reduction in non-essential overheads, compliance with Budget guidelines issued by the Nigerian Governors Forum to ensure peer review and comparability and maintenance of critical spending on core Government services among others.
He appealed to members of the State Assembly to expedite action towards passing the Budget into law to enable the government to implement the programmes and projects that will have a significant impact on the people of the state.
Responding, the Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Abubakar Suleiman assured the governor that the assembly will work closely with ministries, departments and agencies in the state to ensure timely passage of the 2022 budget.