Notwithstanding the autonomy granted local government councils LGCs by the Supreme court Judgement last year, Niger State House of Assembly has considered and adopted the report of its House Standing Committee on Local Government and passed a budget of N151.7 billion for the councils in the state.
LEADERSHIP reports that the House Standing Committee, chaired by Hon. Bello Bako, Rijau constituency, has invited all 25 local government councils to defend their budgets for collective legislation since last week.
It was learnt that the Committee engaged Representatives of the Ministry for Local Government and the Planning Commission to advise on matters of procedure and extant financial rules and regulations.
Consequently, at plenary yesterday, the Committee reported that the councils’ Recurrent Expenditures, as proposed, totalled N96,286,909,470.58, and their Capital Expenditures, N55,434,793,131.53, bringing the total budget size of the 25 Local Government Councils to N151,721,702,602.11.
The committee further recommended establishing sound and sustainable mechanisms to improve the revenue base of local government councils by vigorously pursuing collection and blocking leakages.
The committee also advises that mechanisms should be implemented to ensure prompt lodging of revenues into Local Government revenue accounts and improve capital allocations to affect the lives of the masses.
The House unanimously adopted the budget bill, and the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Barr. Abdulmalik Mohammed Sarkin-Daji directed the Clerk of the House to transmit a clean copy to the Executive for Assent.
Meanwhile, the leader of the civil society organisation in the state, Comrade Abdullahi Jabi, told LEADERSHIP that since the councils have been granted autonomy, the budget legislation should be passed by the councillors of the various local governments.
He said, except there are special arrangements to withhold the implementation of the Supreme Court judgement, “it is an aberration for the House of Assembly to legislate on local government budget.”
