Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The Delta State Government has dismissed claims by a pressure group, Isoko Brains Initiative (IBI) that the entire Isoko nation was shortchanged in the 2018 budget by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
The accused the governor of dedicating only one percent of the entire budget for Isoko nation, even as it blamed the three Isoko representatives at the state House of Assembly for poor lobbying.
IBI therefore passed a vote of no confidence on Okowa and the state lawmakers of Isoko extraction.
But the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Kingsley Emu in a statement said that the budget was misinterpreted while the provisions in some sub heads were distorted by the group.
In the statement made available to our correspondent in Asaba on Saturday, Emu noted that while it is encouraging for citizens involvement and engagement in the budgeting process, it is also advisable for citizens to have a better understanding of a budgeting process.
According to him, the erroneous one percent claim, which he said is actually 2.8% is only in capital expenditure that is so spelt out for specific interventions.
He emphasised that there are omnibus sub heads in ministries of works, health, environment, agriculture, job creation, basic and higher education, water resources, commerce, micro credit which also take care of developmental yearnings of Isoko people.
“More importantly there are key provisions of N1.5 billion and N1.3 billion for social security and community development which are also for capital expenditure in the same budget for all the 25 local government areas,” he added.
Emu maintained that Isoko nation is one of the few local governments that have the benefit of drawing from two key budgets of Delta State and DESOPADEC, pointing out that DESOPADEC has a budgetary provision of N28 billion as capital expenditure for which the Isoko nation is a legitimate beneficiary.
He, however, said that the claims by the group was based on misunderstandings of budgetary provisions, adding, “so their uninformed conclusion cannot bear the burden of explanation of negligence.”
The commissioner explained that in budgeting it is impossible to identify all the issues and areas of intervention in one year and that accounts for the use of omnibus.
“We now have a responsibility to do an enlightenment programme for genuine citizens to educate them on budgets and budgeting process.
“I like to commend the representatives of the Isoko nation for their understanding of governance and how it works but enjoin them to embark on advocacy in this area irrespective of such politically motivated write ups.
“Even basic computation of the capital expenditure has been distorted. We must separate serious issues of economy from politics for obvious reasons,” Emu added.