APC Slams Rivers Lawmakers For Hasty Passage Of 2023 Appropriation Bill

*This hasty and the lack of scrutiny of state budgets have been on for past 7 years–APC

Eric Olusesan/Port Harcourt

The All Progressives Congress in Rivers State slammed Rivers State members of Rivers House of Assembly for the hasty and undemocratic manner they passed  the 2023 Appropriate Bill.

The party queried at what time or day was the budget subjected to the public hearing by the various committee of the house, and when different Ministries and parastatals were invited to defend allocations to them.

Our Correspondent reports that On November 22, the Governor presented on the floor of the House of Assembly the budget  christened the 2023 appropriation bill, ‘Budget of Consolidation and Continuity’ comprises capital and recurrent expenditure of N550, 666,987,238.00 for the fiscal year 2023.

APC said the undemocratic process adopted by the lawmakers has made the Appropriation Act 2023, a document that lacks the fundamental ingredients of collective decision making and cannot be said to be a people’s budget. 

The party said that ideally, a budget should be democratic, fair, accountable, transparent and strategic. We query the procedure for nomination of projects captured in the budget.

In a press statement Signed by Darlington Nwauju, Rivers State APC Spokesperson pointed out that

 “When were the people of Rivers State invited for public hearings by the State Assembly or town hall meetings to highlight sectorial priority? How were the people from the 23 local government areas carried along in the decision of what should come to them and what is the budget performance of the 2022 budget?”

According to the Rivers APC image maker, this is the reason why the opposition party continues to say that something as important as the Budget of a state should not get the sort of poor visibility and accessibility ours has been getting in the past 7yrs and unfortunately the very last budget of this administration has suffered the same fate of opaqueness and elitism.

“The 2023 budget document of Rivers State, therefore, is unaccountable, non-transparent and deceitful only targeting at opening up for the wealth of Rivers State to be misappropriated. The only information we hear is that the Budget was jacked up from N550 to N555billion naira.

APC urged Rivers people to properly interrogate the 2023 Appropriation Act as passed by the State Assembly as the budget should be able to explain to Rivers people the total amount recovered from the shortfalls in 13% derivation accruals paid by the FG in Q4 of 2021 and Q1 of 2022 and the over #60billion expected balance from the Federal Government. 

The party said besides, the disclosures of state assets proposed for disposal to fund this homonguous budget and the valuation of such assets as it would amount to corruption for our assets to be undervalued.

Presenting the budget before State lawmakers on Tuesday at the chambers of Rivers House of Assembly in Port Harcourt, he explained that his administration has projected the sum of ₦350,977,495,537.00 as Capital Expenditure for the fiscal year 2023.

“This amount represents about 63.2% of the total budget and conforms to our practice of prioritising capital expenditures over recurrent.”

Under capital expenditure, governor Wike said the State will spend N114,264,480,208 on infrastructure, N36,999,486,717 specifically on education and N31,500,002,023 on health.

“Accordingly, the sum of N114,264,480,208 is provided in the 2023 capital budget estimate to fund the completion of all ongoing roads and other physical infrastructural projects awarded by our administration.”

The governor said in 2021 and 2022, the State government introduced several fiscal measures, including a moratorium on external borrowing to achieve economic growth, fiscal discipline and financial consolidation. 

These measures, according to him, have significantly blocked revenue leakages, improved the State capacity for internal revenue generation and prevented unsustainable deficit financing.

“We have, therefore, resolved to continue with the existing fiscal measures for the year 2023. This means that there would be no increase in tax rates. No new taxes will also be introduced.

“However, we will continue to intensify our drive to significantly improve IGR by expanding opportunities for more investments, industrialization and efficient tax collection.”

The governor disclosed that the State remains determined to reduce its dependence on statutory federal allocations to finance its budget and development. To this end, he urged other sister States to join Rivers in the struggle to secure the right to impose and collect VAT at the sub-national level.

Reviewing the 2022 budget performance, governor Wike narrated that the approved total budget of the State was N420, 485,053,736.00 only.

He disclosed that by the end of October 2022, total revenue receipts of the State stood at N321, 250,781,228.91, only about 70% performance. While, the total receipts from internally generated revenue (IGR) was N112.099 billion. This, according to him, represents 25% performance above the figure of 2021 for the same period but over 50% less than the projected sum for 2022.

The Rivers State governor said although this is the last lap of his tenure, the administration is resolved to continue to advance Rivers development and secure its future.

“We are therefore poised to use the 2023 budget to deliver more transformative infrastructure and other strategic projects and services and move our dear State closer to the point of self-sustainability.”