Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has ratified the sum of Seventy Four Billion, Two Hundred and Twenty Two Million, Six hundred and Fifty Five Thousand, Eight Hundred and Twenty Naira(N74, 222,655,820), being the total budget size for the 31 local government councils in the State for the year 2017. The budget is made up of a recurrent expenditure of Forty Two billion, One hundred and forty eight million, fifty three thousand and eighty hundred and ninety naira(N42, 148,053,890) and a total capital expenditure of Thirty two billion, Seventy four million, six hundred and eleven thousand, nine hundred and thirty naira. (N32,074,611,930)
The House made the approval on Thursday at plenary following the submission of a report by the House Committee on Appropriation and Finance on the 2017 budget of local government councils by the committee Chairman, Hon. Usoro Akpanusoh. After receiving the report, the House dissolved into the committee of supply where lawmakers undertook an indepth consideration of its contents and thereafter approved the recommendations.
Uyo Local Government has the highest budget size of N3.291, 000,000 billion, followed by Ikot Ekpene Local Government Council which has N3,015.,500,000 billion. The least budget proposed is that of Nsit Atai Local Government Council which is N1.513,000,000 billion.
The House in its recommendation directed that the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs should ensure spread/chart sheets are distributed to all local government councils in the state as at when due.
Reacting, Speaker, Barr. Onofiok Luke thanked the Chairman and members of the Appropriation and Finance Committee and members of the House for their painstaking effort in scrutinising the budget of the councils and commended their diligence in the discharge of their duties.
He explained that the House of Assembly was relying on the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) in scrutinising the budget of the councils, saying such functions would henceforth be handled by the respective local government legislative councils after the forthcoming local government election slated for December.
Meanwhile, Governor Udom Emmanuel will tomorrow, Friday at 9:am lay before the House of Assembly the financial estimate of the State government for next year, 2018. This follows the approval of the Governor’s request to this effect by the House
