Gov. Umaru Almakura of Nasarawa State on Thursday signed the state’s 2012 Appropriation Bill of more than N104 billion into law.
The governor, while signing the budget at the Government House in Lafia, pledged that his administration would adhere strictly to the tenets of budget discipline in order to ensure its effective implementation.
Almakura also assured the people of the state that the days of flagrant abuse of resources were over.
He said, “our government's focus and vision is the fear of God, adherence to rule of law, accountability and transparency.''
He said that his administration was not “just mouthing'' its desire to ensure financial discipline, but that “that this aspiration will be noticed in the conduct and comportment of the administration''.
The governor also pointed out? that his government would depart from the path of previous administrations where contracts were awarded arbitrarily.
Earlier, while presenting the budget for the governor’s assent, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Alhaji Musa Ahmed-Mohammed, said the lawmakers increased the earlier budget sent to them.
He explained that this “was because some sectors were under-funded and also to cover other areas of needs that the state government may have left out of the budget''.
Some of these areas included the digitalisation of the state Radio and Television, the Nasarawa State Broadcasting Service (NBS), as well as the construction of feeder roads across the state.
He pledged the support of lawmakers for government to enable it discharge its duties, and urged the governor to ensure that the state government implemented the budget to the letter.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governor had presented an Appropriation Bill of N97 billion to the Nasarawa House of Assembly in December 2011.
The House had increased the budget by N7 billion to N104 billion. (NAN)
