Diri signs N314.465bn Bayelsa 2022 budget into law

The Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, on Thursday, signed into law the state’s budget of N314.465billion for the 2022 fiscal year, which was passed by the House of Assembly.

The Assembly, however, increased the budget by N3.7billion.

Diri had on October 20 presented the original appropriation bill of N310.717billion christened ‘Budget of Sustainable Growth’ before the assembly for consideration and passage.

He assented to the budget at the Government House, Yenagoa, a few hours after it was passed by the assembly on Thursday.

The assembly presided over by Abraham Ingobere explained during plenary that it jerked up the 2022 budget by N3.7billion “after due consultations.”

It stated that the increase was a result of omission of Assembly personnel and some ministries, departments and agencies as well as calculation errors during preparation.

The N3.7billion, according to the House, was made up of N1.4billion as assembly personnel cost, special duties N800millio, office of the state auditor-general N40million and N5million for some MDAs, among others.

The governor said he was delighted that the budget was speedily passed by the assembly within the 2021 fiscal year.

He stated that his administration was working towards moving away from dependence on federal allocations by improving the state’s internally generated revenue.

Diri charged those entrusted with the responsibility of collecting revenue to do more to increase the state’s revenue profile from N1billion to N1.5billion monthly.

He thanked the House for its commitment and called for more collaboration between both arms of government for the development of the state.

Diri said, “We have to work as a government to move away from dependence on federal allocation, which has characterised our state government over the years. Therefore, I like to charge the officials in charge of revenue collection to ensure that in 2022 we have better figures of internally generated revenue in our state. The current revenue falls far too short of the expectations of the state government.

“As a government, we are prioritising internally generated revenue as one that must increase under this government.”