Following the financial autonomy granted local government councils as the third tier of governance in the country, Bauchi State House of Assembly, on Thursday, approved and passed into law, the sum of N68,694,359,020.000 only, being the 2021 consolidated proposed budget estimates of the 20 Local Government Councils in the state.
This followed the acceptance of the report of the joint committees on Appropriation and Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs on the 2021 Consolidated Proposed Budget Estimates of the 20 Local Government Councils which was laid by the Minority Leader and Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Bakoji Aliyu Bobbo representing Chiroma Constituency during plenary.
The Committee also recommended that the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs should ensure fairness in terms of the allocation of developmental projects across the 20 Local Government Areas of the state.
Furthermore, considering the heavy deductions from the statutory allocation of the Local Governments, the committee recommended that the Executive Arm should call on the local government councils to maximize their sources of internally generated revenue so as to neutralize their hardship in running the governmental business.
It also recommended that the Ministry in collaboration with the 20 Councils should organize intensive training and retraining for the LGAs budget officers to enable them to learn the rudiments of budget preparation in line with best practice.
The Committee, however, warned that henceforth, the standard method of using Excel spreadsheets in the preparation of budgets should be adopted by all local governments.
Majority Leader of the House, Tijjani Muhammad Aliyu representing Azare/Madangala Constituency had earlier requested that the 2021 Consolidated Proposed Budget Estimates of the 20 Local Government Councils should be allowed to undergo third reading and was seconded by Bakoji Aliyu Bobbo.
The Speaker thereafter directed the Deputy Clerk of the House Lamara Abdu Chinade to read the budget for the third time, thus, the 2021 Consolidated Proposed Budget Estimates of the 20 Local Government Councils was passed into law.
The document is to be transmitted to the State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir for assent to enable it to become law and implementable by the councils through the appropriate supervising Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
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