Cross River cuts 2009 budget by 20 per cent
From Anietie Akpan, Calabar
CROSS River State government has cut its 2009 budget by 20 per cent following the ceding of 76 oil wells from Cross River to Akwa Ibom.
Accordingly, Governor Liyel Imoke recently assented to the amendment of the State Appropriation Bill of 2009
Special Adviser Budget, Monitoring and Evaluation Dr. Peter Oti, said that the amendment, which was a reduction, had trimmed the 2009 budget size from N107, 021,984,521 to N85, 225,563,671 which reflects 20.37 per cent drop.
According to Oti: "This means a Recurrent Expenditure from N37, 747,118,144 to N36, 772,112,168 or 2.58 per cent and Capital Expenditure from N69, 274,866,377 to N48, 453,451,503 or 30 per cent," adding that the decision to revise the budget downward was as a result of the sharp drop in the inflow from the Federation Account.
The Special Adviser disclosed that the state's half-year performance report indicated a drop of 47 per cent of inflow from federation account, expressing the state's desire to evolve some strategies to cope with the hard times.
He listed such measures to include reordering of priorities, stepping up effort in Internal Revenue Generation and minimising waste, adding, "the system of budgeting which we have adopted is an appropriate tool to accomplish these desires and we are making the best use of it."
Oti, therefore, called on the business community and individuals to live up to their civic and social responsibilities by paying their taxes to enable government provide social services.
He, however, remarked that the reduction would not affect payment of personnel emolument and advised those in the employ of the state government not to express fears, stressing that projects initiated by the state government might experience delay though it remained committed to good governance and service delivery.
He referred to the steps taken by the state as "sad, worrisome and embarrassing, because it happens at a time when some states are reviewing their budgets upward."
The state Governor Liyel Imoke two days ago said that the state's resources was poor and much was put in servicing debt.
Since the exclusion of the state in March via the action of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and the National Boundary Commission, The Guardian gathered that the state had lost revenue to the tune of over N8 billion from the federation account.
