Abia State House of Assembly has enjoined heads of Ministries, Departments, Agencies, MDAs, and parastatals in the State to take 2020 fiscal year budget defence seriously to avoid delay in its passage.
Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Hon. Chinedum Orji who made the remark while declaring the exercise open at the Assembly complex, stressed the importance of the budget to the State Government in delivering democracy dividiends to abians adding that it is expedient for all MDAs to defend their budget estimate to avoid technical setback.
While calling on the heads of the MDAs to strictly adhere to the schedules of the House of Assembly Appropriation Committee, Orji warned that any MDA or parastatal that failed to appear before the committee will be allocated zero appropriation as its penalty.
Earlier in his remark, the House Committee Chairman on Appropriation, Rt. Hon. Kennedy Njoku, said the 7th Assembly is working assiduously to break record in ensuring that the 2020 appropriation bill is passed into law before December 30th, this year which was unprecedented in previous years.
He urged the MDAs to do the needful by strictly following the itineraries of the House of Assembly adding that they will be lenient in the defence exercise to achieve it goals.
In another development, the House of Assembly in its plenary session yesterday passed H.A.B. 8: The Abia State of Nigeria 2019 Supplementary Appropriation Bill in the tune of #16,504,453,416 as well as H.A.B. 9: The Abia state of Nigeria 2019 Local Government Appropriation Bill of about, #27,195,230,050 into law.
After passing these bills into law, the Speaker of the State House, Rt.Hon.Chinedum Orji, disclosed that these laws had taken effect from 9th September, and 1st January, 2019 respectively.
