Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, yesterday, presented a N385,211,578,924 Appropriation Bill for the 2023 fiscal year to the House of Assembly for consideration.
Tagged “Budget of Sustainable Growth and Reconstruction” the governor said it was hinged on a six-pronged agenda, which include continuous building of infrastructure and reconstruction of infrastructure that had been severely degraded by recent floods.
He also said the civil service would be made more professional while the agricultural sector would be transformed to be an essential contributor to the state’s economy generating employment through various empowerment programmes.
The governor said the budget would be funded from various sources such as the monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) receipts to the tune of N153.511 billion, representing 40 per cent of the total budget; 13 per cent derivation with N148 billion, representing 39 per cent; Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of N20 billion, representing five per cent; grants of N16.7 billion representing four per c net and loans N47 billion, representing 12 per cent.
Diri highlighted the proposed expenditure to include personnel cost of N63.380 billion, overhead cost N95.458 billion, capital expenditure N167.545 billion, pension and gratuities N14.711 billion, public debt servicing N33.7 billion and contributory pension, LG RDAs and SUBEB N4.7 billion.
A sectoral breakdown indicated that the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure got the lion’s share of N77.924 billion, followed by Education Ministry N40.458 billion; Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, N14.199 billion; Environment, N13.842 billion; Health, N12.526 billion; Lands and Housing Ministry, N7.278 billion; Information, Orientation and Strategy, N6.319 billion, while Ministry of Transport got N5.322 billion.
Similarly, N5.793 billion was earmarked for Local Government and Community Development Ministry; Youth and Sports Ministry, N4.610 billion; Trade, Industry and Investment got N2.844 billion, while the Ministry of Power got N2.5 billion.
The governor said the government had prudently implemented the 2022 budget and made noteworthy headway in executing several capital-intensive projects.
Responding, Speaker of the House of Assembly, Abraham Ingobere assured that the House would prioritise the Appropriation Bill and ensure deliberation on it was completed before the end of the year.
Ingobere, however, drew the governor’s attention to what he described as revenue leakages in the state IGR and advised that the financial team synergises to block such loopholes.