The passage followed a report by the House Standing Committee on Appropriation presented during plenary by its Chairman, Yahaya Adamu.
It would be recalled that Governor Simon Lalong had, on December 24, 2018, presented a budget size of over N148.7 billion for the 2019 fiscal year to the House for consideration.
The money bill tagged “Budget of Rescue and Infrastructural Growth” had over N83.4 billion representing 56 per cent of the proposal as recurrent expenditures, while capital expenditures was expected to gulp over N65.3 billion, representing 43.9 percent.
The House had on Jan 23, 2019 committed the bill to its standing committee on appropriation for scrutiny and to make necessary recommendations.
According to Adamu, his committee in conjunction with other standing committees of the House, invited all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) who defended their proposals before the various committees.
“Mr. Speaker, you will recall that on Jan 23, the 2019 appropriation bill was committed to the committee on Appropriation for consideration and scrutiny.
“A budget size of over N148.7 billion was presented to us, but after due consideration, the committee have decided to recommend over N153.6 billion as the total budget size.
“Capital expenditure will take N68.6 billion and the recurrent expenditure is allotted over N85.5,” he said.
Adamu said the committee, in its recommendation, advised the state government to ensure timely release of overhead cost to the various MDAs to enable productivity and effectiveness.
The House after receiving the report, dissolved into committee of the whole where it considered the report presented and made necessary observations and corrections.
The Speaker of House, Rt. Hon. Joshua Madaki, reads out its resolution as follows: “At this juncture, having considered the recommendation of the committee on Appropriation, the sum of N153.6 billion is hereby officially approved and passed into law as the 2019 appropriation bills.”
