Speaker Hails 2019 Budget

The presentation of the 2019 Appropriation Bill was the major item of deliberation last week in the state House of Assembly.
Penultimate week, the Speaker had sued all members of the House to be present as the governor visits to present the 2019 budget.
The House had deliberated on the Rivers State Community Development bill 2018 and which has been referred to the House Committee on Judiciary for public hearing.
Last Monday, before the budget presentation by the governor, the House received a petition from members representing Khana II State Constituency Hon. Friday Nkeeh.
The petition was in disregard and flouting of labour agreement between one Eastern Enamel Limited and its employees.
Hon. Nkeeh disclosed that despite the fact that the staffers had put in services for 12-15 years, the company disengaged them without consideration to labour laws.
The petition he further stated was signed by Barrister Friday John on behalf of the workers.
Reacting to the petition, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Ikuinyi-Ibani frowned at the development and immediately referred the petition to the House committee on public petition for more scrutiny.
The House shortly after received the 2019 appropriation bill presented by the Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike. Before giving out the figures for the 2019 budget proposal, the governor noted that the 2018 budget had 79% per cent implementation success.
He admitted that though the IGR improved by 32 per cent over that of 2017, the state government is poised to exploit the revenue potentials of the state for uptimum contribution to state finances, as over 30 capital projects were delivered in 2018.
Consequently, he disclosed that the 2019 budget would gulp 480 billion and is 28 billion more than that of 2018.
Giving further breakdown of the budget, the governor stated that recurrent Expenditure would gulp N157 billion, while capital expenditure would have the lion share of N323 billion.
The state chief executive said a substantial part of the recurrent expenditure would be used to offset pensions, promotion arrears and overhead of government.
Responding, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Ibani thanked the governor for the commitment he has displayed over the years in the state development.
He said: “Rivers State has taken off in the past three years, we have seen development in all sectors”.
Ibani described the budget as a document of hope saying: “ it’s the spirit embedded in the budget that gives them hope as legislators …. The cardinal objectives of the budget will enhance job opportunities, employment. As House, we will follow all rules of engagement to ensure the budget is passed.