Ondo Assembly Passes N181bn 2018 Appropriation Bill
The Ondo State House of Assembly on Friday passed the state’s 2018 Appropriation bill of N181billion.
The Assembly passed the appropriation bill after the adoption of the report and recommendations of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation under the chairmanship of Hon.Sunday Olajide, as the House resolution.
The state Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, had on December 22 last year presented a total sum of N171, 267, 913, 000 to the Assembly.
The budget estimate which was unanimously passed at a plenary presided by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Bamidele Oleyelogun, was, however, jacked up by N10, 156, 627, 283bn, making the total budget passed into law to be N181, 424, 540, 283.
Presenting the committee report, the chairman of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation ,Hon. Sunday Olajide gave the reasons for the budget increase.
Olajide said, the sum N7bn SUBEB funds for capital projects in 2017 was rolled into the 2018 budget, while the sum of N2bn was also earmarked for the conduct of local government election.
He added that errors observed in the proposals of MDAs were rectified culminating in the increase of the budget sum.
According to him, the budget estimate gave clear expression to the vision of the government to transform Ondo state, adding that the 2018 expenditure it is quite set at sustainable level taking cognizance of the current economic realities.
He noted that the committee observed that there are clear indications that there would not be abandoned projects considering the projections in the budget.
The breakdown of the budget showed that out of the budget, the sum of N78, 587, 675, 486 is voted for recurrent expenditure, while the sum of N80, 928, 985, 234bn is for capital expenditure, N13, 599, 878, 084bn is for debt service, while the sum of N8,308,001, 478.30 is for statutory transfer.
The Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Olugbenga Araoyinbo moved a motion for the passage of the bill after the adoption of the committee report and this was seconded by the Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon. Iroju Ogundeji.
