2009: “Why Ministries, Others Don’t Perform Well In Rivers”

It is now known that ministries, parastatals and agencies in Rivers State did not perform well in 2009 because the statutory allocations meant for them last year were not released by the state government.

The chairman, State House of Assembly Committee on Appropriation, Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Pilgrims Board and State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), Hon. Jones Ogbonda, who made this known Monday while speaking with Assembly correspondents in his office, noted that non-release of funds to ministries, agencies and parastatals has become a recurrent decimal in the state.

Ogbonda blamed the state governor, Rt.Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi for the manner in which he prioritised the allocation of funds to ministries, agencies, advocating that no ministry or agency should be starved of funds.

Even though the ministries and the agencies have their social responsibilities to the state, he argued that non-allocation of funds to them amount to denying the society from benefiting from those social responsibilities.

“It is worst with the parastatals and agencies. Some ministries have received, why some have not. These agencies have some social responsibilities to perform in the state. We cannot blame them for non-performance everything lies at the governor’s table. It behoves on the state governor to release the appropriated funds allocated to these ministries, agencies and parastatals,” he declared.

The chairman, House Committee on Budget averred that the non-implementation of the budget is a disobedience to constitution and such act is punishable in  law.

He called on Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to ensure that the budget allocated to various ministries and their agencies were released to them for effective performance, noting that non-release of appropriated fund was affecting the provision of social amenities to the provision.

Already, he said the House plans to initiate move to address the problem of non-remittance of budget allocations in the state.