Enugu Assembly passes 2016 budget

The Enugu State House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the 2016 Budget of N85.179 billion with some amendments.

The bill, which had earlier passed the first and second reading, was passed following the presentation of the report by the Committee on Finance and Appropriation headed by Hon. Bismark Eneh as the ministries had defended their own budget estimates.

Before passing the bill, the committee had amended some budgetary allocations, by either increasing or reducing them.

According to the House Committee Chairman, Hon. Eneh, the committee recommended additional N110,000,000 to the House of Assembly budgetary allocation bringing the figure to N746,226,008, just as it allocated the same figure to the budget of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development bringing it to N2,919,049,231.

The committee, however, recommended a reduction of the budget estimate for the Enugu State Economic Planning by N378,850,000 thereby bringing it to N472,150,000.

Eneh prayed his colleagues to painstakingly join hands, 'with our amiable governor, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, to actualise the laudable goals of achieving the theme of this year's budget of stability and consolidation.'

Speaker of the House, Hon. Edward Ubosi who spoke later thanked members for their contributions which helped to shape the scope of the budget and vowed to ensure serious oversight functions for the budget to be implemented accordingly. 'We must back it with thorough oversight. Everybody should swing into action to ensure that the budget is implemented to the letter,' he said.