Gov. Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State on Wednesday denied replacing the 2013 budget presented by late Gov. Patrick Yakowa with a reviewed one.
The governor made the denial while receiving the 2013 passed budget from the Majority Leader of the state House of Assembly, Mr David Umar, in Kaduna.
The late Gov. Patrick Yakowa had presented the state’s 2013 “Budget of Consolidation and Advancement’’ of N176. 4 billion to the state House of Assembly on Dec. 13 – two days before his demise.
?“Even though a lot of people had been speculating that I withdrew this budget and completely reviewed the budget. I am happy that the House are presenting this budget to the Executives for us to look at it and assent to it.
“This shows that if I had withdrawn this budget the House wouldn’t have had the opportunity to look at it today or present it to us.’’
He, however, said that some areas that were not captured in the budget proposal submitted to the house by his predecessor, had been added by the lawmakers.
?“Based on what the Majority Leader said on harmonisation, there are certain aspects that we realised that need to be look into. And these areas that were not captured in the budget in which they were supposed to be captured especially in the area of ongoing projects.
“And whether the Executives or the Legislatures once they see this kind of things they ought to do something about it, which the legislatures were able to do it.
“So anybody that thinks that we have changed the budget, we have not changed anything, we have not done, we have not withdrawn anything. And I would like to say that I have not even have the time or the opportunity to even look at the project, so nobody can say that I have withdrawn it, or I have withdrawn it.
“I would like to make it clear that the Executives under my leadership did not recall this budget and did not withdraw this budget as reported.’’??
He assured the people that his administration would look critically at the budget passed by the lawmakers before assenting to it to ensure that it was properly implemented for the speedy development of the state.
Earlier, while presenting the passed budget to the governor, the majority leader said the lawmakers reviewed the budget upward and approved N179 billion for 2013.
Umar said the lawmakers had approved a N2.5 billion increment to the proposed N176.4 billion earlier presented to them for approval.
He said the house approved N74.5 billion for recurrent expenditure and N104.5 billion for capital expenditure.
“Some of the areas we felt were not captured or were not carried along during the budget presentation, we discussed with your team that was sent to the Kaduna State House of Assembly and we arrived at this figure.’’
Umar said that the legislature increased the budget to pay some contractors handling ongoing projects.
“We did not bring any new projects it is all ongoing projects that were still hanging and not been captured in the budget.”
He said the members of the house would ensure full implementation of the budget for the benefit of the people of the state.