Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Benue State House of Assembly has passed an Appropriation Bill of N190.030 billion for the 2018 fiscal year, representing an increment of over N11 billion over the N178.3 billion that was presented to the Assembly by Governor Samuel Ortom, December, last year.
Chairman of the House Standing Committee on Appropriation, Barr. Adam Okloho, while leading debate on his Committee’s report, on Wednesday, explained that the N11 billion was as a result of non-inclusion of some on-going projects by Ministry of Finance and additional request by public sector Entities (PSEs) for inclusion of some critical projects which were omitted from the initial estimates.
The 2018 Appropriation Bill as passed has as its main features, N81.9Billion for Recurrent Expenditure, N108Billion for Capital Expenditure while Deficit Financing stands at N35.1Billion.
Announcing the passage of the bill after its Third reading, Speaker, Terkimbi Ikyange said a proviso has been introduced in the bill to compel the Ministry of Finance to stop releasing monies to Public Sector Entities on items that are not captured in the budget saying such practice contravenes the Appropriation law.
Daily Sun gathered that the passage followed clause by clause consideration of the report of its Standing Committee on Appropriation on the 2018 Appropriation Bill, in the Committee of Supply, Chaired by the Speaker, Terkimbi Ikyange.