Governor Babagama Umara Zulum of Borno State on Monday signed the N108.8billion 2020 Revised Appropriation Bill into law.
The Appropriation Act was unanimously revised and passed by the State House of Assembly members for Executive assent for the state Capital and Recurrent Expenditures this fiscal year.
Speaker of the BOSHA, Hon. Abdulkarim Lawan, who had led other principal officers to the Government House to present the revised budget to the governor at the Council Chamber for assent, explained the revision of the 2020 Appropriation Act was necessitated by the sudden drop in prices of crude oil globally due to COVID-19 pandemic.
He added that the fall in the federal allocations to the state Governments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the socio-economic challenges of reality on ground, necessitated the house to revised the budget .
The Speaker also said that ” the house assented to the bill from the Executive on 14th July 2020 immediately when it swung into action and referred the Bill to the House Committee on Appropriation for further Legislative action
“On 22nd July 2020, the budget was presented by the Committee of the House on Appropriation with 26% reduction and the house unanimously passed the budget to the executive for assent ,” Lawan said.
In his remarks after assenting to the Appropriation Bill into law, Governor Zulum commended the efforts of the members of the State House of Assembly for the consideration and speedy passage of the Appropriation Bill while pledging to fully implement it in the ways and manners the bill was passed by the law makers.
The Governor further directed the State Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to ensure strict compliance of the budgetary provisions and review all terms of Expenditure frameworks as Borno people expect more from the present administration especially in the areas of education and healthcare service delivery.
I’m his introductory remark, the State Attorney General a d State Commissioner of Justice, Barrister Kaka Shehu Lawan said Midway in the first quarter of 2020 , the world was ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic which affected the global,national and state economy.
He added that this prompted the decision of the Executive to send a revised budget to the Stat House of Assembly and in line with directive of the Governor, a revised budget of the 2020 Appropriation Bill was presented to the law makers for consideration.
Highlights of the occasion include the formal presentation of the clean copy of the budget by the Speaker to the Governor and signing of the Appropriation Bill into law as well as group photographs.
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