Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Adamu Candido, has assented to over N8 billion budgetary proposals by the council for 2020.
At a brief signing ceremony held at AMAC headquarters in Area 10, Garki in Abuja, Candido described the 2020 estimates as budget of actualisation of promises made to the people.
He listed areas where priority would be accorded to include infrastructure, especially standard roads in the communities, water supply, healthcare and other deliverables that could be of benefit to the people.
It would be recalled that AMAC legislature recently passed its 2020 budget which was to the tune of N8,705,126,049 only.
The budget, which represented a nominal increase of 3.43 per cent above the previous year’s, was zero-based with 51.52 per cent allocated to capital expenditure.
“We have only two years to deliver and we have to leave substantial things for those to succeed us,” Candido said, while charging all his supervisory councillors and Special Assistants that he wanted to see the manifestation of projects between January 1 and May 20, 2020.
While shedding light on his plans to free up funds for capital expenditure and reduce overhead cost of the council, Candido lamented the existence of ghost workers on the council’s payroll. He said some of the ghost workers would not be paid from December 2019.
“We have taken a look at our payroll and discovered that some people (AMAC staff) are no more with us. So, we will identify them and have their names removed from our payroll as some of them have moved to other places. Whoever is supporting them to draw salaries without working; we will stop them, because we cannot allow them to be collecting salaries in two places. It is cheating and it is not acceptable,” Candido said.
He described the relationship between AMAC and the Federal Capital Territory Administration as mutual, adding that AMAC had entered into agreements with the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and the Department of Outdoor Advertising and Signage (DOAS) on revenue collection and service delivery, which would remove frictions and increase internally generated revenue.
