The Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, on Tuesday
presented a budget proposal of N67billion to the State House of Assembly for
the 2016 fiscal year.Presenting the budget, Mr. Fayose said the figure represents
a 17 percent reduction in the 2015 appropriation, which was N80billion.
According to him, the cut was informed by his government’s
decision to live within its means and avoid proposing unrealizable projects.
The governor clarified that he decided to involve the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences Commission to monitor the implementation in order to prevent
“political petitioners” from peddling lies against his government.
The governor appropriated N100 million to his “stomach
infrastructure” programme, and also restored the scrapped Social Security
Scheme for the indigent, which was initiated by the Kayode Fayemi-led
government.
Mr. Fayose said 10,000 persons would continue to receive the
sum of N5, 000 monthly from January, 2016.Giving the details of the budget tagged Budget of Purposeful
and Strategic Transformation, Mr. Fayose said N24billion and N44billion were
earmarked for capital and recurrent expenditures respectively.Under the capital expenditure, Mr. Fayose said the proposed
airport, Oja Oba Market and the Flyover would become realities in 2016, being
part of his efforts to give Ekiti a befitting facelift.
He expressed dissatisfaction with the huge recurrent figure
of N43 billion, saying it was to enable him cater for workers’ welfare, which
is a priority of his government.He reiterated his position against the plan by the Nigeria
Governors’ Forum to either retrench or cut the N18, 000 minimum wage, saying
his government won’t associate with any anti-people policy.Mr. Fayose said he recorded a 70 per cent budget performance
in 2015, despite the dwindling revenues caused by slump in oil prices in the
international market.
No comments:
Post a Comment