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Uduaghan signs N472b 2013 budget

By on March 5, 2013

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, Monday, signed the Delta State 2013 Appropriation Bill into law with a vow to weed out ghost workers and unqualified staff from the civil service system.

Dr. Uduaghan signed the total budget size of N472, 006,772,172.00 as passed by the state House of Assembly last month.

Breakdown of the budget showed that the state is expected to spend N315, 602,989,563.00 for capital projects, representing 67% while recurrent expenditure is expected to gulp N156, 403,782, 607.00, representing 33 per cent.

Describing the budget as a deficit one, Dr. Uduaghan promised to prudently fund projects to accelerate the execution of policies and programmes in order to improve the living standard of the people

He also promised to place more emphasis on Capital Expenditure so as to consolidate the massive infrastructure development drive in the state.

“We want to do more of Capital Projects and spend less on recurrent expenditure. This is a big challenge, we are setting up structure that will weed out all ghost workers. Indeed we reduced recurrent to 37 per centand increased Capital to 67 per cent.

“For this year we are setting up structures that would ensure that we weed out every ghost worker, and I mean it, we will weed out every ghost worker still in the system. We are going back to our biometrics.

“It is also in our interest that we weed out workers that are not qualified from the system. Just sometime last year, we sent a name to the House of Assembly for confirmation as member of the DSIEC board but it was unfortunate that somebody who had retired as a principal did not even have a secondary school certificate. That tells you the kind of people we have in the service.”

The governor announced that the state would work hard to improve Internally Generated Revenue emphasising that the goal was to ensure that Internally Generated Revenue would take care of Salaries and Emoluments while the State share of the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) would take care of Capital Expenditure.

He promised to tackle the issues of ghost and unqualified workers in the State Civil Service explaining that Biometric checks would soon be carried out in the state.

Uduaghan promised to meet with workers in the state soon on the issue and explained that the Office of the Head of Service would be tasked to carry out the Biometric checks.

He continued “we are going to use the Biometric System, it will also be used to weed out workers without the requisite qualification. The Office of the Head of Service will be in-charge of this exercise.”

The Governor who called for patience on political appointments, explained that he was conscious of the Wage Bill and promised to explore alternative ways to compensate Politicians other than appointments.

Other Bills signed into law today were the Delta State Multi-Door Court House Bill and the Delta State Engineering Project Monitoring and Control Board Bill

Dr. Uduaghan said that the Multi Door Court House Bill would promote alternative Dispute Resolution in the State, quicken the dispensation of justice and provide alternative mechanism for the resolution of disputes.

He also said that the Delta State Engineering Project Monitoring and Control Board Bill would ensure that standards are maintained in the design and execution of engineering projects in the state.

He explained that the Board has become necessary given the rate of project failures and building collapse in the Country.

He promised that the Board would monitor and control the design and execution of Engineering Projects in the State with a view to ensure that standards are met.

His words “The establishment of a body called Delta State Engineering Monitoring and Control board became necessary to help regulate, monitor, control and uphold standard in the design and execution of engineering projects across the state especially with the spate of building collapse in the Country.”

Speaking earlier, while presenting the Bills, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Rt. Hon (Engr.) Victor Ochei said that the House in keeping with the constitution has passed and approved the 2013 Appropriation Bill and the two other Bills sent to the Governor for his assent.

According to the Speaker “The House of Assembly has done its Job. The 2013 appropriation Bill has been deliberated on and duly passed. There is also two other bills to be signed along with it. The Delta State Engineering Monitoring and Control Board Bill and Delta State Multi-Door Court House.”

 

(Guardian)