By Obansa Ibrahim, Lokoja
The Initiative for Grassroot Advancement, (INGRA) Nigeria has called on the Kogi State house of Assembly standing committee on appropriation, economic planning and budget monitoring to look at ways of putting in place mechanisms for restructuring the 2024 proposed Budget so as to provide the maximum benefit for the people.
It could be recalled that Governor Bello on Monday presented N258,278,501,339.00 proposed 2024 budget to the house for approval.
The 2024 proposed budget for Kogi State it was learnt has recurrent expenditure of N145,736,429,609.00 representing 56.43 percent and a capital expenditure of N112,542,071,730.00 representing 43.57 percent.
In a memorandum submitted before the Lawmakers on Wednesday by the Executive Director of INGRA, Hamza Aliyu observed that, the recurrent to capital Ratio of 56:44 is not conducive for development as it means that the government intends to spend more on personnel and overhead than on capital projects which will benefit the majority of the Citizens of Kogi State.
While noting that there is need to reverse this trend, Aliyu maintained that, the borrowing plans of the State Government is worrying taking into consideration the increase in the revenue as shown in the budget outlay.
” More worrying is that more than 100% of the Recurrent Revenue for 2023, was used for Recurrent Expenditure leaving a deficit of more than N13billion. There is the urgent need to tame this reoccurring trend in our public sector finance management taking into consideration that over N17billion was paid out as debt in 2023 (as at September) and N15 billion is estimated for debt payment in 2024″.
Continuing, Aliyu said “The Budget does not make plans for SAVINGSIII! It would have looked good if there was a FUND kept aside for emergencies such 83 an economic recession etc taking into consideration that majority f our income is tied around a single product which is which Is currently witnessing volatility in the market with the Israeli-Palestinian war going on.
” No provision is made for the reticulation of the Greater Lokoja Water Scheme. The scheme which is expected to generate ten Million gallons of water per day and end the city’s perennial water crisis has been epileptic at best due to poor resource allocation and human capacity.
“The reticulation was to ensure the effective distribution of water from the new waterworks to parts of Lokoja and the adjoining towns of Ganaja, Zango, Kabba junction Obajana and Gadumo”.
Giving a breakdown of the proposed budget for each ministry, Aliyu observed that, the budgetary allocation for provision of dump sites, waste collection Vans and other waste management issues under the ministry of environment is grossly inadequate, considering the size and importance of Lokoja, Okene, Kabba and Anyigba and other towns in Kogi State.
He recommended that these should increase substantially to cater for the large amount of wastes generated and expected to be generated in these areas.
For the ministry of Work, the INGRA Executive Director opined that, there is needs to be a substantial increase in allocation to many of the roads project in the 2024 proposed budget.
“There seem to be an inconsistency in the cost of constructing a kilometre of road in the budget. The Budget allocation for the construction of Okene Township roads (10.7km) Is put at over N2 billion (almost N200m/km) and that of Itakpe junction -FCE-Total filling Station (14 km) was N1.5 billion (over N107m/km).
“However, the allocation for the Obabara-Ukpake road (37 km) has a budget of only N100 million (slightly more than N2.7m/km) and that of Jamata-Budan-Kupa road (30 km) has a budget of N500 million (N16.7m/km).
Aliyu, further decried the budgetary allocation for agriculture in Kogi State. According to him, the 2003 Maputo Declaration enjoins States and Nations to invest at least 10% of their Budgets on Agriculture.
“The persistent high cost of food in Kogi State and the high food inflation in the State, is putting pressure on the cost of living for the citizens of the state despite being an agrarian State.
” The Budget allocation of less than N8.8 billion (less than 3% of the total budget} means that the government does not intend to improve the sector, which has been shown as the fastest means of sustainable poverty reduction. By the Maputo declaration, which Nigeria is a signatory, the least Investment from the 2024 Budget should be N25.8 billion (representing 10%)”.
He further stressed the need for an
improved internally generated revenue for Kogi State to meet the 32 year development plan of the Alhaji Yahaya Bello Administration and other Administrations to come.
“Thus it is worrying that despite the 10% MANDATORY deduction from source as collection fee for the service and other sundry deductions, there is a SPECIAL GRANT to the service of another N1.5 billion. This is worrisome as this amount can be judiciously used in service provision in health, Agriculture, roads” he stated.
In his presentation, the Executive Director, Conscience for Human Right and Conflict Resolution, Comrade Idris Maliki urged the various committees to take a look at some proposed issues where recurrent capital expenditure is higher than the capital budget, stating that such occurrence would put the state in stagnant position.
Earlier, the Chairman, house standing committee on appropriation, economic planning and budget monitoring Hon. Jacob Sam Olawumi disclosed that the
Committee has the responsibility of X-raying, analyzing and making recommendations on the income, including allocations from the federation accounts, the internally generated revenue, capital receipts among others, and the expenditure including both recurrent and capital expenditures in carrying out the policies and programmes of the State Government, and for overall approval of the House.
He urged the critical stakeholders to put their wealth of experience towards actualizing a 2024 budget of all inclusive that stand to benefit the entire state, noting that the 8th assembly has been very passionate about public participation in lawmaking process to bridge the gap between the government and the people
“It is therefore, essential that we keep in mind the common purpose that unites us, our goal for common good and good governance where upon successful delivery of government policies and programmes, and the engagement of the people in realizing the governance objectives are crucially linked to the effectiveness of leadership and by extension the membership of this legislature. This is necessary in ensuring governance functioning and development of our dear State” he added.