AK Assembly Passes 2014 Appropriation Bill

The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Thursday, passed the 2014 budget into law with additional N29,166,048,000.00, bringing the total budget outlay to N498,539,700.000 .

A breakdown of the budget shows that N36,048,000 is earmarked for recurrent expenditures while N29,130,000,000 is voted for capital projects. The budget tagged "Budget of Consolidation", will take effect from January 1, 2014, with a projected recurrent revenue accruing to the state at, N495,539,700,100.

The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Samuel Ikon who presided over the plenary urged the executive after the passage of the Bill to continue to exercise fiscal discipline in the implementation of the budget.

He accentuated that the fifth assembly would do its best to leverage development in the state through the making of good laws.

While presenting the report to the House, the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation and Finance, Hon. Barr. Onofiok Luke urged the executive to take steps to streamline Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to guard against possible roles conflict and duplication of functions.

He however called on the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to send their quarterly report to the assembly through their various committees to ascertain the level of budget implementation on the release of funds.

He commended the State governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, for having the political will to adopt a transparent and detailed accounting system in preparing this year's budget.

While thanking the leadership and members of the Assembly for the opportunity given them to serve Akwa Ibom state people, Luke, advocated for the inauguration of Children's Parliament and the establishment of Youth Parliament by the appropriate Ministry in the State.

It will be recalled, The Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Hon. Barr. Onofiok Luke, had hitherto examined the budget as his Committee held public hearing on the bill during which Executives of Ministries, Extra-Ministerial Departments, Agencies appeared before it to defend the estimates of their respective establishments.

Meanwhile, the Speaker, Elder Sam Ikon, has thanked the Chairman and members of the Appropriation and Finance committee for the job well done in submitting the bill on time for passage into law.

In the same vein, the Speaker has also commended Governor Akpabio for adopting the International Public Sector Accounting Standard, IPSAS in the state to check corruption in the system.

Ikon is optimistic that with the adoption of IPSAS, the state government would ensure the enthronement of transparency and accountability in the public service.

The Leader of the House, Rt. Hon. Okpolopm Ette, moved the motion for the passage of the bill into law and was seconded by the member of Nsit Ubium State Constituency, Hon. ( Barr.) Onofiok Luke.