Budget defense sittings and public hearings of the 2018 Appropriation Bill, including those of Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) and Rivers State Government Bills topped proceedings in the Assembly last week.
Last Monday, budget estimate defence sittings by the various Standing Committees began with Ministries of Education, Works and Information taking turns.
Shortly after his budget defence last Tuesday, Special Adviser to the Governor on Amnesty, Mr Ken Chinda told newsmen that his office executed all the projects contained in its budget from 2016 to 2017 with huge success.
Mr Chinda said: “A lot of the training programmes were conducted for those who embraced amnesty. Of course there were those who sincerely repented”. He cited the friends of Jesus in Gokana and another group at Abua in Abua/Oudal Local Government Area that jettisoned their old ways and took to new life. He explained that the 2018 budget is to sustain the success of the Amnesty Programme and lauded security agencies for their support to the scheme.
The House also sat last Tuesday as the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission Bill (HA10) and the Rivers State Local Government Bill (HA9) passed through to committee stage.
Minority Leader of the House, while commenting on the bills during the House debate, observed that the State Local Government Law have been the most amended. Hon Anabraba stressed the need for the law to be compiled into one piece of legislation, so as to make it easy for the law to be accessible and easy for reference.
The same view was held by the Speaker, Rt Hon Ikuinyi-Owaji-Ibani who frowned that in the past, the local government laws have been in piece meals and need to be compiled into one. “As a third tier of government I believe that the bill will re-enact the local government laws, which is very important and is coming at a crucial time for proper administrations”, he said.
The same view was canvassed by legislators on the RSIEC bill of 2018. The major plank of the amendment is to align the electoral law to the Supreme Court Judgement of 2010, which prescribes 90 days and not 14 days as provided by the amendment done by the last Assembly ahead elections.
Budget defence sittings continued last Wednesday and Thursday with various Ministries, Departments and Agencies appearing before the Statutory House Committee. Rivers State Internal Revenue Service, the office of the State Auditor-General and Auditor-General of the Local Government appeared before Committee on Public Accounts and Finance.
The Ministry of Agriculture also defended its budget estimates with the Commissioner, Mr Charles Nwaorgu and key officials defending its capital and recurrent proposals.
The House convened last Friday shortly after it had conducted public sitting on the RSIEC bill 2018. The plenary witnessed the presentation of the various standing committees submitting their reports on the budget proposal.
Not less than 10 standing committees submitted their report on the 2018 Appropriation Bill. After the House rose from sitting, the Committee on Local Government Affairs chaired by Hon Kelechi Nwogu conducted a public hearing on the 2018 LGA bill (HA9). Many stakeholders presented their memoranda, as Hon Nwogu assured that their views would be inputted in the new legislation.