Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
Taraba government has said it would review the 2020 budget by 25 – 30 per cent to reflect current economic realities occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic.
Commissioner for Budget and Planning , Solomon Elisha, disclosed this in Jalingo, yesterday.
“The ministry has just finished the medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) in preparation to the presentation of the reviewed of the 2020 approved budget. We just finished and it was handed over to the exco secretariat for deliberations and approval towards sending it to the House of Assembly for passage into law to enable us review the 2020 budget.
“My ministry has been working tirelessly making sure that we comply with the directive of Governor Ishaku in making sure that the downward review of the 2020 budget becomes a thing of the past. Owing to the fact that COVID-19 has caused a lot towards destabilising the economy, not only the economy of Taraba State, but the economy of Nigeria and the world in general.
“You can see even the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) has been bastardly distorted. Workers that have been right there, making sure that they collect revenues are now locked down in their homes because of COVID-19. The economy has been something else. We thank God that here in Taraba the government is doing a lot, the economy is not distorted like other states, but we are making efforts in making sure that we do what is best,” Elisha said.
The commissioner said government was making plans to ensure the state emerges as one of the best three in Nigeria in terms of food production, natural resources exploration and model in the North.
He commended Governor Ishaku for his deliberate efforts towards ensuring the development of the state, adding that his ministry was working hard in fast-tracking development of the state through robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
“We are here for a serious business and we won’t relent until we achieve our goals. So far, we have searched and discovered that Ondo State has the best monitoring and evaluation template and we are going to copy their template, work on it and deploy here to track progress,” he said.
