Benue Assembly Passes N170.8bn Supplementary Budget

Benue State House of Assembly has passed the 2024 supplementary budget of N170.8 billion.

The House passed the supplementary budget during Wednesday’s plenary after it clause by clause consideration.

The supplementary budget has brought the 2024 budget to N396 621 868,343) from the initial approved budget of N225,727,395,206,97) only.

In the budget passed, the recurrent expenditure increased by N10.5 billion, bringing the total recurrent expenditure to  N155 647 410,359). In contrast, the capital Expenditure was untouched and still maintained at N240, 974, 457, 983.

The house called on the Benue State Budget and Planning Commission to consult with public sector entities (PSEs) before any budget is revised to capture their input. It urged the Ministry of Finance to ensure prompt release of budgetary approvals to MDAs to improve performance in their operations.

The House also called on the State government to ensure that MDAs maintain their appropriate terminology to avoid role conflict that may affect the proper codification of the State Budget at the Nigeria Governor’s Forum.

Earlier in a lead debate, chairman of the House Standing Committee on Appropriation Cephas Dyako, while presenting the committee’s findings, said there was extra-budgetary expenditure on recurrent expenditures and overhead costs by Public sector entities and stated that most MDAs performed poorly due to the non-release of funds.

The house clerk, Bernard Nule, read the bill for the third time, and the speaker, Hyacinth Dajoh, passed it into law.