The Plateau House of Assembly has passed the 2017 appropriation bill of N139 billion into law
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the House unanimously passed the bill into law on Wednesday, after its Standing Committee on Appropriation submitted its report at the plenary.
NAN also reports that the approved figure represented about 4.6 percent increase on the N132 billion proposal submitted by Gov. Simon Lalong in Dec. 2016.
Details of the budget indicated that N70 billion was for capital expenditure, while N69 billion was for recurrent expenditure.
Explaining the rationale behind the increase, Mr Yahaya Adamu, Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, said that some key agencies were being underfunded and could not function well.
“Since the state has continued to emphasise the need to generate more revenue, we felt that revenue generating agencies should be quipped for that task,” he said.
He urged government to ensure prompt release of funds to critical agencies to enable them perform optimally.
The House also called on government to lift the embargo on employment, pointing out that most ministries, departments and agencies were grossly understaffed.
It also advised government to post personnel to newly established agencies to enable them perform their statutory roles. (NAN)
AZA/CEO/ETS