A few hours after Bauchi State House of Assembly passed the 2022 Appropriation Bill of N197.475 billion passed into law, the State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir has signed it into law making it ready for implementation.
The 2022 budget is made up of N85,057,580,518,58 for recurrent expenditure representing 43% while the sum of N112,418,026,625.27 only, is for capital expenditure representing 57%.
The Assembly had during its plenary on Friday presided over by the Speaker, Abubakar Suleiman, passed the budget which has an increase of N2.12 billion into law and forwarded same to the Governor for assent.
Recall that the Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, on November 18, 2021, presented a budget proposal of N195,355,607,143 for the 2022 fiscal year to the Assembly for consideration and passage. It comprised recurrent expenditure of N84.735bn (43 percent) and capital expenditure received N110.620bn (57 percent) was 8.5 percent lower than the 2021 budget.
The Speaker, of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Abubakar Suleiman, in a speech before handing over the budget to the Governor, said that the increase in the proposal submitted by the governor was because some items were omitted.
He said that: “We are presenting to you a budget of N197,475,607,143.85. You may notice an increase of about N2.1 billion. This was so because there was an oversight, there is supposed to be a counterpart fund for one of the Non-Governmental Organizations but it wasn’t captured in the budget by the Ministry”.
The Speaker added that, “We observed that and included it and there were other minor increments. This was done in good faith and for the development of the state.”
Speaking before signing the budget, Governor Bala Mohammed said that the government accepts the increment in the budget in good faith pointing out that it was done for the good of the people and in order to capture the financial autonomy of both the legislature and the judiciary.
The Governor said that, “Today’s occasion concludes the chain of processes within the budget circle culminating into the state’s 2022 appropriation law which approved the 2022 budget in the sum of N197,475,607,143.85, for which my assent is sought”.
Bala Mohammed added that, “I want to, with a deep sense of humility and respect, thank the Members of the Assembly for their patriotism in ensuring the speedy passage of the budget. I must thank the House for the support we have continuously received in our efforts to improve the lives of our people”.
He also said that, “The budget has been derived from the state medium-term plan 2021/2025 which will be rolled out very soon. The plan which aligns with the overall national and subnational perspectives has set out our developmental objectives and defined our key priorities which we hope to achieve through the budget process”.
According to him, “The adjustment of N2.1 billion made by the House to the proposals submitted, was done to support the move for the financial autonomy of the Legislature and the Judiciary and other counterparts that were omitted in the estimates,”.
The governor further said that the budget aligns with his administration’s commitment towards ensuring the independence of those arms of government noting that the increase was done in good faith and we accept it as such.
He then assured that with the passage and signing into law of the 2022 Budget, his administration will immediately hit the ground running in the implementation of the items contained in the budget assuring of the state of completion of all ongoing projects as scheduled.
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