‘Legislators Thorough With 2018 Budget’

The lawmaker representing Degama Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Farah Dagogo has said that the state lawmakers are being thorough with the 2018 state budget in order to lay the framework for an ‘ improved 2018 fiscal year ‘.
Dagogo who made this submission when MDAs under the Education Committee appeared before it last Tuesday to defend their allocations as well as give account of previous ones, explained that the lawmakers are desirous of doing what is right and what will be beneficial to the generality of the people.
The committee however refused to take the budget defence of both the Rivers State University and the State Universal Basic Education Board, for failure to furnish the it with necessary documents.
According to him, ” As the name implies, it is purely budget defence, where those given allocations are to appear before the House’s various standing committees and justify what has been allotted to them.
” In the case of Rivers State University and that of the UBE Board, the necessary documents the committee requested from them to help us do our work were not appropriately given to the committee. We simply ask them to go back and furnish the committee with those documents so we can work with them.
“Our committee is very thorough, we are doing the right thing, we are not here to witch hunt anybody, we are just doing our job. The Commissioner for Education was here and several others were here and were attended to apart from the aforementioned Rivers State University and the UBE Board that were not attended to owing to lack of necessary documents”, he said.
Earlier, Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Hon. Tamunosisi Gogo- Jaja, said as a former legislator, he was impressed with the professional and thorough manner the committee went about its function.
The budget defence was witnessed by civil society groups including the Integrity Group, as well as representatives of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS.
Others that were grilled by the committee included Ignatius Ajuru University of Education Port Harcourt Polytechnic, Rivers State Secondary Schools Board, Rivers State Library Board, Rivers State Adult and non-formal education, and Rivers State Readers Club.