The Abia House of Assembly on Tuesday approved Governor Alex Otti’s request for a virement warrant totalling over N22.2 billion for government services.

The approval followed the consideration of a letter by the governor presented by Deputy Speaker Austin Mmeregini at the house plenary session in Umuahia.

The majority leader, Uchenna Kalu, moved a motion asking the lawmakers to consider the request.

Mr Kalu said the request was necessitated by the present administration’s desire to rebuild the state and improve the welfare of the citizenry.

“This bill is straightforward and seeks to vire money from the expenditure sub-heads, where they were not properly captured to the areas where they will be properly utilised and needed without actually increasing the budget.

“We are all aware that the present administration merged some ministries when it came on board, so it is proper for the state to vire funds from some of the ministries to the areas where they are needed in order to ensure the optimal utilisation of the funds.

“I urge my honorable colleagues to support this bill to enable the present administration to continue to deliver democracy dividend to the people,” Mr Kalu said.

The deputy speaker, who presided over the session, put the motion to vote, and it was unanimously accepted by the lawmakers.

In another development, the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Kingsley Anosike, presented the Abia Medium Term Economic Framework on the house floor. 

Mr Anosike described the framework as a document that would serve as a roadmap for the Abia government to achieve fiscal transparency and efficiency. 

He said: “The purpose of this document is to provide an indicative sector roadmap for the period covering 2024 to 2026, which constitutes the Mid-Term Budget Framework.

“The second is to provide a backward-looking summary of fiscal and economic trends that will affect the public expenditure in the future, and the future means the budget cycle covering 2024 to 2026.

“To set out medium-term fiscal objectives and targets, which will include revenue mobilisation, level of public expenditure, deficit financing, and all these are public expenditure programmes.”

Mr Anosike said the government planned to strengthen its fiscal framework control and enforce compliance with established spending limits in government transactions to achieve a sound budgeting system.

He also said the key target for the government from a fiscal perspective would be to create efficiency in personnel and overhead expenditure to allow greater resources for capital development.

According to him, the ministry had proposed a budget  around increasing the internally generated revenue by a minimum of 17.5 per cent every year from 2024 to 2026.

Mr Anosike further said the government’s priority, with respect to sound budgeting, would be the completion of ongoing capital development projects before commencement of new ones.

(NAN)