Bauchi State House of Assembly on Thursday approved and passed into law the sum of N68,694,359,020.000 as the 2021 consolidated budget estimates of the 20 local government councils in the state.
The approval by the House came on the heels of the financial autonomy granted local government councils as the third tier of government in the country.
The House at Thursday’s plenary accepted the report of its joint committees on Appropriation and Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs on the 2021 consolidated proposed budget estimates of the 20 local government councils.
The report was laid by the Minority Leader and Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Honourable Bakoji Aliyu Bobbo, who is representing Chiroma Constituency in the Assembly during plenary.
As part of the report, the joint committee recommended that the state Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs should ensure fairness in terms of allocation of developmental projects across the 20 Local Government Areas of the state.
The report further recommended that the executive arm in the state should call on the local government councils to maximize their sources of internally generated revenues (IGR) to neutralize their hardship in running a governmental business, noting that this is imperative given the heavy deductions from the statutory allocation of the local governments, the committee recommended that
It also recommended that the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs should, in collaboration with the 20 local government councils organize intensive training and retraining for the council budget officers to enable them learn the rudiments of budget preparation in line with best practice.
The joint committee then warned that henceforth, a standard method of using an Excel spreadsheet in the preparation of budgets should be adopted by all local governments.
After the report was laid before the House, Majority Leader, Tijjani Muhammad Aliyu, representing Azare/Madangala Constituency, moved that the 2021 Consolidated Proposed Budget Estimates of the 20 local government councils be allowed to undergo third reading. This was seconded by Bobbo.
The Speaker, Right Hon Abubakr Suleiman, then directed the Deputy Clerk of the House, Lamara Abdu Chinade to read the budget for the third time, which was done after which the consolidated budget of the 20 local government councils was passed into law.
DAILY POST reports that following its passage, the Appropriation Bill will be sent to the state governor, Bala Mohammed, for his assent.
The House directed that when assented to, the councils should implement the law and ensure it is appropriately supervised by the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
