Ekiti House of Assembly has referred the state’s 2021 Revised Appropriation Bill, totalling more than N110 billion, to its House Committee on Finance and Appropriation for further legislative scrutiny.
The bill was referred after deliberation by members at Thursday’s plenary presided over by Speaker Funminiyi Afuye.
During the debate, some members, including Mr Adeyemi Ajibade (APC-Moba Constituency 1) and Mr Stephen Aribasoye (APC- Ikole Constituency 2) lauded the Executive Bill.
They said it would assist in focusing on critical aspects of the economy and governance, if passed.
Also speaking in the same vein, Mr Ayodeji Ajayi (APC- Ise/Orun) and Mr Joseph Olatunji (APC-Ekiti SouthWest) called on members to speedily consider the bill.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that though the revised version of appropriation bill has the same figure of N109.7 billion as the approved in the 2021budget.
There were, however, little adjustments in the revised appropriation bill to ensure effective performance in the fiscal year.
The recurrent overhead cost was adjusted from N17 billion to N22 billion, while the capital expenditure was raised from N27 billion to N34 billion.
After the debate, Speaker Afuye referred the bill to the appropriate house committee for fine-tuning.
Also, the members at their sitting on Thursday passed the state Mental Health Bill, 2021.
Introducing the bill, the House Majority Leader, Chief Gboyega Aribisogan, said the bill was meant to cater for the mentally ill in the society.
Members, who contributed, called for its speedy passage and this made the bill to be referred to the Committee of the Whole House, for ratification.
The Clerk of the House, Mr Tola Esan, thereafter read it for the third time and the speaker subsequently declared it passed. (NAN)
