The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee overseeing the emergency rule in Rivers State has raised a number of questions on some provisions in the N1.48 trillion 2025 budget presented by the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.).
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The committee posed the questions to the sole administrator at a budget defence session yesterday in Abuja.
It queried the provision of N24 billion for Close-Circuit Television (CCTV), N30 billion for the purchase of gunboats, and N23 billion for contingency reserves.
The committee asked Ibas to furnish it with a comprehensive breakdown of major items in the budget.
Committee Chairman Julius Ihonvbere (APC, Edo) said the committee had gone through the budget, as presented by the sole administrator, and had raised several issues.
The committee also queried why the sole administrator budgeted for federal projects in the state without an agreement on the repayment process from the Federal Government.
He directed Ibas to submit the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which is a legal document that should precede budget presentation.
Ihonvbere said: “We need additional details for those allocations. We requested details of state Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the last three months to enable us to know your financial flows so that we can weigh it against the deficit in the budget, in terms of financing it and carrying out some of the projects.
“We also need details of transfers to local governments, essentially, how local government funds that come into the state are being managed at the moment.
“Those documents we have requested for must reach us within 48 hours. Rest assured that we are all on the same side in terms of getting Rivers State working again.
“We want to ensure that we will promote a lot of accountability and ensure that the interest of the people themselves, no matter how remote they are from the state capital, are protected,” he said.
Ibas told the committee that the administration inherited many of the items in the budget from the suspended government.
Represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Strategy and Policy, Andrew Nweke, the sole administrator said the budget reflected the interest of Rivers people as it was designed in line with the needs assessment carried out by implementation agencies.
Nweke said Rivers had a lot of peculiarities, explaining that the N30 billion earmarked for gunboats was to support security agencies in the fight against insecurity on the waterways.
The SSA also said Rivers State always experienced floods, insecurity, and other unforeseen natural circumstances.
According to him, the N23 billion contingency fund was earmarked to address such.
Justifying the allocation of N24 billion to buy CCTV for the Government House in Port Harcourt.
Nweke described the office of the governor as one of honour, stressing that there was a need to acquire modern technology for security surveillance, among others, for the office.
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