As the Rivers State House of Assembly commences debate on the budget of N490.32bn proposed by the Rivers State Government for 2013, the State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has urged the lawmakers to investigate and make public reasons behind the poor implementation of 2012 budget.
The party in a statement signed by its State publicity, Jerry Needam alleges that the 2012 budget was selectively and poorly implemented.
According to the ACN, even when ministries, agencies and parastatals of government were denied budgeted allocations the state government took overdraft to the tune of N100bn, borrowed about N180bn and is currently owing contractors the sum of N500bn.
No ministry or agency of government in 2012 was able to access up to 35% of the 2012 budget allocation, the ACN further alleged.
The party reminded Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, that a breach of State budgets is an impeachable offence, noting that whether at the federal level or states etiquette demands that unspent funds should be returned to the state treasury, and regretted that in Rivers State, no ministry was able to return unspent funds because the governor withheld and managed the budgets for the ministries.
The ACN spokesman, Jerry Needam advised against the policy of running the State as though it is a personal estate.
According to the ACN, failure to investigate the poor implementation of the 2012 budget, the regime of self-seeking and misappropriation of public funds by the privileged few will go on unabated in the state to the detriment of the already impoverished Rivers people.
It would be recalled that Governor Amaechi on the 20th December 2011, while presenting the 2012 budget did promise to use the money to ensure the timely completion of all ongoing projects.
ACN regrets that today in the State, contractors have pulled out of sites for the inability of government to pay them, confirming gross failure of the Amaechi administration.
Jerry Needam, JP
Publicity Secretary
Action Congress of Nigeria
Rivers State.
Source: OgoniNews
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