By Gbadamosi oladimeji
Bayelsa State Governor, Duoye Diri, has presented the sum of N242billion as the budget estimate for the 2020 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly.
He also assured workers on the implementation of the New minimum wage.
Governor Diri, who christened the document as ‘Budget of Consolidation for Prosperity 2020’, noted that capital projects earmarked by his administration will gulp N46.7billion.
He assured that his administration would continue with the implementation of the Federal Government approved minimum wage for workers, which the payment of gratuity arrears had already commenced for pensioners.
He explained that following the sharp fall of crude oil, the state government will have to focus on an alternative source of funding.
The total estimate of N242.2 billion was allocated to works and infrastructure, agriculture, health and education topping the scale of preference.
However, the budget estimate is less than that of 2019 which had N275.8 billion, with a difference of N33 billion.
Reacting to the drop, the governor attributed it to the prevailing economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that the maiden budget estimate defines the structure for the economic activities to be undertaken in the fiscal year.
“As part of efforts to reduce the cost of governance and enhance transparency, the human resources, financial reporting, budgeting and procurement component of the state’s Integrated Financial Management Information System (SIFMIS) would be fully implemented this year”, he said.
On his part, the Speaker of the House, Abraham Ingobere, assured the governor of expeditious passage to enable the government to meet up with the needs of governance.
The budget presentation comes two months after Diri was sworn in as the fifth executive governor of Bayelsa State.
