The Kwara State House of Assembly says it will recommend to the State Government that any Ministry, Department and Agency of government that surpasses its revenue projection in the fiscal year be made to retain some percentage of such recurrent revenue expenditure to serve as motivation.
The Speaker Dr Ali Ahmad gave the assurance in Ilorin while speaking at the ongoing 2016 Budget Defence of MDAs before various committees of the State House of Assembly.
Dr. Ahmad explained that the recommendation became imperative in view of the urgent need by the State Government to look inward due to incessant dwindling revenue from the federation account.
This according to him would go a long way to check the state’s over dependence on the federation account and ensure proper implementation of capital projects in the budget to enhance the well-being of the citizenry.
He frowned at the poor implementation of the 2015 budget by the MDAs and enjoined them to focus on budget surplus to increase the percentage of implementation of 2016 budget.
The Speaker who queried the poor performance of the state government in the area of counterpart funding in the previous years, assured that the State House of Assembly would assist the state Ministry of Economic Planning in ensuring the release of the State’s counterpart funding to enable the state access the huge fund from donor agencies for execution of projects that would improve the quality of life of the people of the state.
Dr Ahmad then called on the Ministry of Economic Planning to embark on aggressive sensitization and involvement of stakeholders in taking full advantage of the state’s Community based Development Agency in fast tracking provision of basic infrastructure.
Meanwhile, following the submissions of the state commissioner for Works and Transport, Aro Yahaya and the Director-General of the Bureau of Statistic, Nasir Ibrahim, the House has resolved to increase the monthly allocation to the office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Rural Roads in the budget to enhance the construction of more rural roads across the state as well as accommodate the construction of Data Processing Centre in the fiscal year to block leakages in the state’s revenue profile due to lack of centralised data system in the state.
The House committee on finance and Appropriation equally summoned the group Managing Director of Harmony Holdings Mr. Tope Daramola to appear before the committee on Friday at 10.00a.m as it rejected the appearance of the Chief Accountant of the Holdings for the budget defence.
