Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state has signed the state supplementary budget of N42 billion for the year ending December 2020 into law to fast track socio-economic development.
Mohammed, who assented to the budget in Bauchi on Monday, said the supplementary budget was to enable the government to complete all proposed projects before the end of his four-year tenure.
He said N36 billion would be spent on capital expenditure which includes roads, schools and other relevant development projects to enable the State match its peers in terms of development.
The governor said that the sum of N6 billion had been earmarked for recurrent expenditure covering the cost of governance, security and other pressing related State matters, saying “we will live up to the expectations of the electorate.”
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He said the state had in the last two years increased the volume of its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by 300 per cent, from N300million to N700million, and had reduced costs and other leakages, especially arising from the salaries of ghost workers.
Earlier, in his remarks, the Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Alhaji Abubakar Suleiman said the supplementary appropriation Bill was presented to the house last week and the Assembly passed it within the week.
He said the speedy passage of the Bill was informed by the performance of the government in the provision of social services, hence their resolve not to delay the process.
The speaker said that the assembly realized that it was on the same page with the executive arm of the government.
He said that the house was also expecting the executive to present the 2021 appropriation bill for proper scrutiny and passage, with a view to continuing delivering democratic dividends to people of the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Bauchi state government had on December 2019 presented a budget of N167 billion which was later revised to N129.8 billion and tagged as the ‘’Budget of Hope’’.