Lalong signs 2020 revised budget into law

TRACKING___Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong has signed into law the revised 2020 Appropriation Bill. The 2020 Budget was revised from N177,340,521,174.00 to N122, 848,822,913.00 due to the negative impact of the ongoing COVID-19 disease.

Governor Lalong who signed the document at the new Government House Little Rayfield, Jos, said the revised budget became necessary because of the need to take care of the realities of COVID-19 which has greatly affected the economy of the State.

According to him, “For us as a State, the impact has been huge as our earnings have drastically fallen even in the face of demands for funds to carry out statutory responsibilities and also respond to the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

“That is why we engaged in various cost-cutting measures to enable us to manage the lean resources efficiently and also try to fulfill our most basic responsibilities of providing services to our citizens.”

He reiterated the commitment of his administration to work through the challenging period by effectively applying available resources to the most critical areas that will benefit the people and assist in bequeathing a lasting legacy for the people of the State and directed the State Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning as well as all MDAs to ensure strict and effective implementation of the budget in line with extant financial regulations.

Speaking on the funding of the budget, Governor Lalong said “a reputable revenue collection firm has been engaged to improve on revenue targets, especially the Internally Generated Revenue which is crucial to funding the 2020 budget,” stressing that “Government will continue to strengthen the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA); the Efficiency Unit; Bureau for Public Procurement; Liquidity Management Committee; as well as the Project Monitoring and Result Delivery Unit (PMRDU) to maximise resources and eliminate wastages.”

Also, the State Commissioner for Budget and Planning Sylvester Wallangko explained that the revised budget consists of N42.8 Billion for capital expenditure and N79.9 billion for recurrent expenditure, maintaining that the revised budget is in a deficit of Twenty- seven billion, seven hundred and nine million, four hundred and twenty-one naira (N21,709,429,246,00) which will be funded from loans from domestic and external sources.