2022 BUDGET: ZAMFARA ASSEMBLY PASSES N159.4 APPROPRIATION BILL
The Zamfara State House of Assembly has passed the 2022 appropriation bill of N159.4 billion with slight modifications.The assembly also closed for a three weeks recess.
Gov. Bello Matawalle had on Nov. 30, 2021 presented a budget proposal of N160 billion for 2022.
Passage of the bill was contained in a statement issued in Gusau, on Thursday, by the Director General Press Affair and Public Relations to the House, Mustafa Jafaru-Kaura.
Earlier, the Chairman House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Shamsudeen Hassan-Basko (APC- Talata-Mafara North) while presenting the report on the bill during the assembly’s plenary said the budget was downsized by N765 million.
Hassan-Basko added that in order to achieve a realistic budget in the state the committee observed some challenges that needed to be addressed.
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“The committee observed challenges to include overlapping and duplication of responsibilities among some MDAs in the state, non performance of 2021 budget by some MDAs as well as non release of fund and worst still, the discovery by the committee of non remittance of funds to the Board of Internal Revenue by the revenue generating agencies in the state.”, he said.
He lamented lack of synergy between the state Ministry of Finance and that of Budget and Economic Planing with regards to postings and releases of funds in the appropriate books of accounts and complete lack of training among the finance and planing officers of the state regarding the concept of IPSAS compliance budget.
“The committee downsized the budget by about N765 million naira by reducing the size of capital expenditure from N97 billion to N85 billion while recurrent was increased from the initial N63 billon naira to N73 billion naira in order to comply with IPSAS standards and current economic realities of the country, among other recommendations submitted by the committee.”
After deliberations by the lawmakers, they unanimously approved the committee’s recommendations, the Speaker Nasiru Magarya, announced the passage of the bill.
Magarya thanked the chairman and members of the committee for their performance during the budget defence exercise.
The house also passed other bills for Gov Bello Matawalle’s assent.
The passed bills were, “A bill for a law to repeal Sokoto State Teachers Service Board law cap 39A of 1992 and to re enact a law for the state and “An executive bill to enact law to amend State Debt Management Office Establishment law No 03 of 2020.
During the sitting, the Speaker announced the closure of the house for three weeks recess.
