George Okoh in Makurdi
Benue State House of Assembly wednesday passed the state’s Appropriation Bill of N190.030billion for the 2018 fiscal year.
The passage followed clause by clause consideration of the report of its Standing Committee on Appropriation on the 2018 Appropriation Bill, in the Committee of Supply, chaired by the Speaker, Mr. Terkimbi Ikyange.
The bill as passed represents an increment of over N11Billion over the N178.3billion that was presented to the Assembly by Governor Samuel Ortom last December.
The Chairman of the House Standing Committee on Appropriation, Mr. Adam Okloho, while leading debate on his committee’s report earlier, explained that the N11billion is as a result of non-inclusion of some on-going projects by the Ministry of Finance and additional request by Pubic Sector Entities (PSEs) for inclusion of some critical projects which were omitted from the initial estimates.
Main features of the 2018 Appropriation Bill as passed include N81.9billion for recurrent expenditure, N108billion for capital expenditure while deficit financing stands at N35.1billion.
Announcing the passage of the bill after its third reading, Speaker, Mr. Terkimbi Ikyange said a proviso has been introduced in the bill to compel the Ministry of Finance to stop releasing monies to PSEs on items that are not captured in the budget saying such practice contravenes the appropriation law.
