On Wednesday, December 7, 2016, Bayelsa State Governor Henry Seriake Dickson presented the 2017 Appropriation Bill totalling N221.28 billion to the Bayelsa State House of Assembly.
Dickson showed a remarkable understanding of the dynamics and undercurrents of the state in his preamble as he listed various efforts his administration would embark upon in the coming year to turn around the economy of the state from a purely consuming one to a productive one.
He answered critics when he stated: “I have no option than to be ambitious in development” while noting that he was taking the current steps as he is doing his second tenure; he defended past governors also by saying “I cannot blame my predecessors because they did not have the opportunity of second tenure because they would have been held hostage.”
One of his ambitions is the completion of the international cargo airport with a runway of 3.5 kilometres equal to those of Lagos, Abuja and Kano, the passion to hit the Atlantic Ocean on three fronts at Brass, Koluama and Agge, the drive to make the state a home for water sports and a tourist attraction.
The governor expressed bewilderment that out of a population of about 3.0 million Bayelsans, a workforce of about 43,000, which is about 0.1 percent is receiving about 89 percent of the resources vowing to bring about a change.
Hear him, “I will be failing in my duty to the people” if he did not change the direction of the state by bringing in aggressive development by tackling the issues that a first term governor dared not touch because they would seek second tenure.
“The budget comprises a personnel/recurrent expenditure of N136.96 billion and capital expenditure of N84.317 billion, and as much as can be seen, looks every inch like all past budgets characterised with huge recurrent expenditure and smaller capital expenditure.”
The governor said his government made an initial appropriation of N170.693 billion for the year 2016 and in the course of the implementation, the budget was restructured, and in addition, a supplementary budget of N20.808 billion was made to take care of some critical projects which needed to be completed which brought the total budget of 2016 to N191.500 billion.
The budgeted expenditure was as follows: personnel cost N50.592 billion or 26.42%, overhead cost N23.052 billion or 12.04%, consolidated revenue fund charges N61.850 billion or 32.30%, capital expenditure N56.006 billion or 29.24%.
As of October 2016, the actual receipts for the fiscal year stood at N81.674 billion or 42.65% of projected revenue.
On the expenditure side, during the period, the state have expended a total sum of N74.529 billion, out of which expenditure on recurrent items and personnel cost was N52.668 billion or 70.67% and capital payment were N21.861 billion or 29.33%.
Dickson stated that the revenue receipts for the 2017 budget include statutory allocation of N191.093 billion, Value Added Tax N6.986 billion, internally generated revenue N15.126 billion, capital receipt N8.076 billion; the 2017 Budget was christened Repositioning for Consolidation as he touched on pertinent issues that have bedevilled the state since creation.
One of the most telling issues so far has been the bloated civil service force which draws a monthly wage bill of over N4.0 billion and a local government workforce that receives about N1.2 billion monthly before the salaries of appointees.
Dickson noted that the monthly wage bill is far too high considering the population of the state and therefore one of the priorities of his administration in the coming year is restructuring, repositioning and reorganization of the civil service “in such a way as to enable government meet up its responsibilities.”
In view of the fact that most Bayelsans are dependent on salaries, the governor is proposing a N10 billion Entrepreneurship Development Fund or a kind ‘Employee to Employer Public Fund’ to woo willing civil servants to voluntarily exit the civil service and get training to become entrepreneurs.
But the state government will launch the Entrepreneurship Development Fund with N5.0 billion while donor agencies and development partners including the Bank of Industry are expected to inject the remaining N5 billion into the fund to ensure success at the end of the day.
To further the plan, Dickson informed that the state government has already established an Entrepreneurial Training School to train those who will voluntarily exit the public workforce on becoming entrepreneurs and ultimately employers of labour.
The state government plans to bring in other stakeholders including the Bank of Industry and development partners to achieve the aim and in the same vein raise internally generated revenue (IGR) and create employment for jobless women and youth of the state.
Another compelling issue is the rather poor IGR; although it has risen from the very low N60 million monthly to over N600 million, it is not enough considering the huge untapped sources of IGR in the state and in view of the poor federal allocation coupled with the low returns from the 13 percent derivation due to the prices of oil and gas in the international market.
Dickson has introduced the regional and urban planning law to improve IGR; the Environmental Sanitation Authority has added value to IGR but noted the need to dramatically improve” internal revenue generation while calling for understanding among Bayelsans that “taxation is the first civic responsibility of every citizen.
So, he has set the stage for the introduction of PITA, property tax and tenement rates including levies for billboards, signboards and other legal and constitutional sources though assuring that the “taxes and levies will be bearable.”
The governor assured that in the coming year, there will be a drive for increased transparency, and therefore the need for greater sensitization at the local government level and collaboration with federal and state agencies in order to address some issues with the public workforce.
Agreeably, the civil service in the state is filled with truant workers, those who receive multiple salaries and a host of others; a drive for increased transparency will therefore ensure that workers do not receive salaries for work not done.
Added to the above is the policy of commercialization which he defended saying it “makes sense and it is the right way to go” while stressing that the state will never at any time divest ownership of any state agency though lamenting that many of them are actually cost centres rather than centres of production.
He urged Bayelsa businessmen and women to express interest in managing the agencies including those jointly owned with Rivers State for profit (already, the Bayelsa Oil Palm Estate has been commercialised) but it is not clear if the state will consider outsiders for the running of such agencies should the indigenes fail to take advantage of the situation.
On education, Dickson made it clear, the state will not continue to bear the entire salary burden of the state owned Niger Delta University (NDU) which presently stands at N480 million monthly to the detriment of providing needed infrastructure to improve the quality and standard of the institution.
In other areas of education, the governor disclosed that boarding education will commence in the New Year and the government will subsidize students welfare while allocating N5.0 billion for the provision of physical infrastructure in tertiary institutions.
According to Dickson, the state will determine an adequate amount to pay to the university as subvention as is being done by other state governments to their tertiary institutions but it is not clear how the school will react to the new government policy.
In the area of power, he informed the House of Assembly that his administration aims to create a power hub around Imiringi; he disclosed plans to put the various gas turbines acquired by past administrations to use in order to generate enough power to attract industries to the area.
Perhaps, one of the greatest areas is in aquaculture where the state government has completed 500 fish ponds in the aquaculture village at Igbogene, which will employ over 650 youth and women; it will be replicated at the local government level and there are plans to ultimately groom the workers to become self employed.
Dickson said his administration has made tremendous progress in the area of health by building the diagnostic centre which ranks among the best in the country in addition to other efforts in building referral hospitals in all the local government areas which are nearing completion: in addition the state government will built one health centre in each of the 105 wards across the state.
He assured that with the completion of the Chief Melford Okilo Memorial Hospital, provision of excellent quarters for medical staff and the already completed and equipped Government House Hospital Complex which has both public and private wind with dual entry points, the state is set for the introduction of a medical and health insurance scheme and Bayelsa State is ready for medical tourism which will add value to revenue generation.
As usual, works and infrastructure received the highest allocation of N26.985 billion to complete ongoing projects including the roads to Southern Ijaw and Ekeremor, education received N13.5 billion, health N5.916 billion, sports N2.0 billion and local government and community development N2.2 billion.
Others are agriculture and natural resources N4.24 billion, tourism N779 million, transport N1.94 billion, trade and industry N739 million, power N3.55 billion, urban development N3.0 billion, water resources N500 million, information and orientation N631 million, finance N1.734 billion, budget and economic planning N3.332 billion and lands and survey N2.0 billion.
