Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State has signed the state 2022 Appropriation Bill of N314.5 billion into law. Diri assented to the bill in Government House, Yenagoa on Thursday after it was passed by the Bayelsa State House of Assembly earlier in the day.
Present at the signing ceremony was deputy governor, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, speaker of the House of Assembly, Abraham Ingobere, his deputy, Michael Ogbere, the House leader, Monday Bubou, and other principal officers of the assembly and top government functionaries.
The budget is N3.747 billion, 1.2 percent higher than the figure of N310.7 billion the governor presented to the House of Assembly in October this year.
Diri was happy at the speedy passage of the bill within the 2021 fiscal year and stated that his administration was working towards moving away from dependence on federal allocations by improving internally generated revenue.
He charged those entrusted with the responsibility of collecting revenue to do more to increase the revenue profile from N1 billion to N1.5 billion monthly.
Expressing appreciation to the House for its commitment, he called for more collaboration between both arms of government for the development of the state.
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“The budget was laid on the floor of the House on October 20, 2021. It went through the legislative processes of law-making. It has gone through the scrutiny of the eagle eyes of the legislators and I’m happy that I have given my assent to this bill this 30th day of December 2021.
“The total budget for 2022 is as follows: N314,465,018,997.00.”
The governor urged all Bayelsans to work with his administration for the development of the state rather than engaging in criticisms that do the state no good.
Earlier, the speaker, Abraham Ingobere, stated that the additional N3,747,410,619 was borne out of the need to include some government agencies and other areas that were not captured in the bill.
While passing the bill on the floor of the House, Ingobere had disclosed that the increase was also due to allocations to personnel costing N1.4 billion, special duties N800 million, auditor-general’s office N40 million and others.
He had described the appropriation bill as the most important bill to the Bayelsa people.
