REMARKS BY THE SPEAKER OF THE AKWA IBOM STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY, RT. HON. (BARR) ONOFIOK LUKE, AS SPECIAL GUEST AT THE 3RD ANNUAL AKWA IBOM OPEN BUDGET FORUM HELD TODAY, MONDAY 13TH FEBRUARY, 2017, IN UYO. #OpenBudgetAKS #OpenBudget #Uyo #Nigeria by @PolicyAlert
PROTOCOLS I am delighted to be part of this forum today. As the head of an arm of government which prides itself as The Peoples Assembly, I felt obliged to partake in this conversation on the Akwa Ibom state budget for 2017 which is architected to cater for the needs of the people.
Let me use this opportunity to thank the team at Policy Alert and by extension the Grassroots People Empowerment Foundation, for this people-oriented initiative. And may I use this opportunity to inform you that the objective of this forum is to a good extent in line with what we are doing at the State House of Assembly and as you may already know, the assembly in recent years had established and sustained the tradition of putting in place public hearings to gather collective contributions from the civil societies, professional bodies and the public on the bills that we intend to pass. Among these, of top most priority has been the public hearings we organize on appropriation bills proposed by the state executive. This is in keeping with our determination to democratize, as much as we can, the process of allocation and expenditure of our commonwealth by those whose responsibility it is to do so.
The appropriation law is one of the important laws of any government. It serves as one of the key roadmap and the compass in government’s journey towards the actualization of its set agenda. A budget proposal sits at the heart of government’s plan to ensure the proper functioning of government in a given fiscal year. It is against the backdrop of this importance, and in line with our resolve to deepen the edgesensure of our democratic principles, that the House of Assembly is leaning towards participatory budgeting. Participatory budgeting system allows stakeholders and the ordinary citizen to make inputs into the quantitative financial projections of government's income and expenditure. It also allows for a mutual bilateral partnership between resource managers, which is government, and the resource owners, which is the citizen. It is adopted by some of the most successful developing economies like Brazil, Malaysia and Singapore. It is this level of success that we hope to achieve and promote a tradition that will outlive the Deacon Udom Emmanuel administration.
So I thank Policy Alert for taking up the onerous responsibility in the last three years to create the opportunity for stakeholders to interact and partner for the purpose of evaluation and review of budgetary allocations, as well as overall financial policy formulation and implementation.
As a House, we played our oversight role of taking a comprehensive assessment of implementation level of the 2016 budget. The sum of N423.000 billion was approved for the 2016 fiscal year, made up of N94 billion for recurrent expenditure, N234 billion for capital expenditure, and 85 billion Consolidated revenue fund charges. Unfortunately, the targets for that year could not be met due to the shortfall in the state’s income for that year. For the purpose of this gathering, let me mention again that only 37 percent of what we projected to earn from a combination of our statutory allocation, internally generated revenue, and derivation, was realized for the 2016 fiscal year. This was a serious drawback for government. However, when we compared our meagre earnings to how much we had achieved in the areas of capital infrastructures and the recurrent expenditures made, how much the state government was able to do in spite of the shortfall, we strongly believe that we have raised the bar in fiscal responsibility and service to the people.
Ladies and gentlemen, before the House of assembly committee on appropriation and finance is the appropriation bill 2017 tagged the Budget of Consolidation, pegged at N365.251 billion. Permit me to add here, that just like the 2016 budget, the 2017 budget is modelled in line and in adherence to the international Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). His Excellency, the Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel has emphasized that the budget will ensure the continuity of the ongoing socioeconomic programmes in line with his administration's agenda of wealth creation, job creation, poverty alleviation, economic and political inclusion as well as infrastructural consolidation and expansion in the state. As a House, our responsibility is to ensure that these promises are actualized within the shortest possible time and we are committed to explore all the channels made available by our oversight responsibilities to monitor the implementation of this budget and ensure that due dividends of good governance are enjoyed by the citizens (the resource owners)
The role you (the stakeholders) have in ensuring the success of a participatory budgeting system cannot be over emphasized. This is why I completely endorse your engagements here today, and you are assured of my complete support and to also request that you take advantage of our commitments to run an open door policy in seeking contributions, counsel and transfer of ideas. We believe we are just a privileged few speaking for our different constituencies out of the abundance of other vibrant, intelligent, industrious and competent Akwa Ibomites. We are not all-knowing and therefore we live for days like this where we can get an opportunity to hear from you and receive your various inputs.
The ultimate objective is to make sure we approve a budget that is a reflection of our collective needs as well as bring about the necessary succour to our people even in these trying economic times we have found ourselves in as a country.
I wish you a productive deliberation.
I thank you.
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