The Delta State House of
Assembly has passed the 2016 Appropriation bill of N268 billion for the fiscal year.
The passage of the appropriation bill followed a report presented by the Chairman House of Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Miss Erhiatake Ibori, during the proceedings of the state of the Assembly in Asaba.
The 2016 appropriation bill showed an increase of N2.5 billion from the N265.6 billion earlier presented to the state House of Assembly by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa in December 2015.
Our correspondence reports that the sum of N153.2 billion was approved for Recurrent Expenditure, while the Capital Expenditure had N114.8 billion.
According to the budget breakdown, the economic sector had a total of N125.7 billion, while the social sector had N17.4 billion.
The sum of N27.7 billion was approved for the environmental sector, while the sum of N15.2 billion was appropriated for the General Administration sector.
The chairman of the committee, while presenting the report noted that the approved budget was specific, realistic and implementable.
Erhiatake also said that the budget would effectively kick-start the ‘SMART’ agenda of the present administration as well as ensure the commitment of the state government on the provision of critical infrastructure which included roads, hospitals, schools and electricity.
Consequently, the Majority Leader, Mr Tim Owhefere moved a motion for the third reading of the Appropriation bill to enable the House pass the bill.
The motion which was unanimously adopted by the House was seconded by Mr Timi Tonye representing Patani constituency in the state House of Assembly.
The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr Monday Igbuya, commended the members of the committee for the speedy passage of the appropriation bill.
He also directred the Clerk of the House to send clean copy of the bill to the governor for his assent.
