Plateau Assembly Passes N177.3billion 2020 Appropriation Bill into Law

By Golok Nanmwa,Jos

Plateau State House of Assembly on tuesday passed the 2020 appropriation bill of over N177.3 billion into law .

This followed the report by the House Standing Committee on appropriation, presented at plenary by it’s chairmen, Hon. Yahaya Adamu.

It would be recalled that Governor Simon Lalong had on November 26, presented over N172.5 billion to the assembly as budget for the 2020 fiscal year.

The budget tagged “Budget of Rescue and Infrastructural Consolidation”, had over N98 billion as recurrent expenditure, while capital expenditure would gulp over N74 billion.

The Assembly, on December 3, passed the budget to second reading and committed the bill to its standing committee on appropriation.

According to Adamu, the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the state had defended their proposals before standing committees of the house.

“Mr Speaker, you will recall that this house committed the 2020 appropriation bill to the committee on appropriation, after it was presented on November 26 by the governor.

“After intense scrutiny of proposals of MDAs by various standing committees, this committee wish to recommend that the sum of over N177.3 billion be approved as the budget size for 2020 fiscal year.

“There is an addition of over N5 billion as recommended by this committee, against the initial figure of N172.5 billion as presented by the governor,” he said.

The chairman explained that the addition was appropriated for the state Road Maintenance Agency and for the legislative arm of the state.

Adamu further said that the committee urged the state government to ensure timely and constant release of funds for overhead and capital projects by MDAs, as provided in the budget.

He also said the committee called on government to lift embargo on employment, to close the gaps existing in the civil service.

The chairman stressed the need for MDAs to to step up their game and be proactive so as to generate more revenue for the state.

The House later approved and passed the appropriation bill through a voice vote.

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Plateau Assembly Passes N177.3billion 2020 Appropriation Bill into Law