Al-Makura presents N13.9bn supplementary budget to Nasarawa lawmakers

Gov. Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa State has presented a supplementary budget proposal of N13.9 billion for the 2018 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly for consideration and approval.

Alhaji Ibrahim Balarabe-Abdullahi, the Speaker of the House, announced this during plenary on Monday in Lafia.

Al-Makura, in a letter to the lawmakers, said that the supplementary budget was to enable his administration complete ongoing projects.

“My administration is determined not to leave any project uncompleted at the expiration of my tenure; that explains why we have doubled up the pace of execution of all capital projects,’’ he said.

According to the letter, during the preparation of the 2018 budget, some projects were underfunded.

“Given such projects’ importance to the public, it has become necessary to request for additional funds to complete them.

“We are also determined to leave a manageable debt size for the incoming administration.

“In line with this philosophy, we have made concerted efforts to defray a reasonable amount of the state’s contractual liabilities.

“Most of these obligations were not adequately funded in the 2018 Appropriation Act as earlier stated, hence, the need to submit the supplementary Appropriation Bill for legislative action.

“The total supplementary budget requirement for 2018 is N13,985,868,011. Of the figure, N3,175,521,871 is for Recurrent Expenditure, while N10,810,346,140 is allocated to fund capital projects,” the governor stated.

The governor urged the House to pass the supplementary budget to enable him complete capital projects for the benefits of the people.

Our correspondent, reports that the House has fixed Nov. 27 for the second reading of the bill.

It was recalled that on Nov. 29, 2017, Al-Makura presented the 2018 budget proposal of N122.8 billion to the state House of Assembly for consideration and approval.

The lawmakers passed that budget on Jan. 24, 2018, after raising it by N2.6 billion.