Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State

Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson has signed the 2017 Appropriation Budget of N243.2 billion and the Educational Development Trust Fund Amendment Bills into law.

Assenting to the two bills in Government House, Yenagoa, Governor Dickson said the budget, which is christened, “Budget of repositioning for Consolidation” was aimed at completing various on-going projects in the state.

The Governor, who noted that the government appropriated N111 billion for capital projects alone, called on ministries, departments and agencies to ensure strict implementation of the budget and fast-track the processes of award of contracts, as his administration was committed to completing most of the projects and programmes this year.

Governor Dickson, who explained that recurrent expenditures such as salaries, pensions, gratuities and overhead would gulp the remaining balance of the budget estimate, assured that the government would conform strictly to the budget.

While commending workers in the state for their understanding and patience, he said the government was working out modalities on the payment of the backlog of salary arrears owed workers, last year.

On the Educational Development Trust Fund, Governor Dickson explained that certain aspects of the law needed to be amended to include, elevation of the qualification of the secretary of the board to the level of a Director in the public service.

According to him, the secretary is expected to provide international liaison with the board as well as incorporate representatives of organised labour on the board.

Presenting the bills, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Benson  Konbowei said out of the N243.2 billion, total personnel expenditure, including gratuities and pensions, came up to N52.5 billion.

He also noted that consolidated revenue funds stood at N14 million, bringing the total to N66.7 billion.

Rt. Hon. Konbowei announced N40.8 billion as overhead costs, while N24 billion would be spent as Cash on Transfer, COT, Value Added Tax, VAT deductions and other financial consultancy services.

He said N88. 1 billion would be expended for capital expenditure while other aspects of capital project funds is N23 billion, bringing the total of 111billion naira only.