The Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, on Tuesday presented a budget proposal of N67billion to the State House of Assembly for the 2016 fiscal year.
Presenting the budget, Mr. Fayose said the figure represents a 17 percent reduction in the 2015 appropriation, which was N80billion.
According to him, the cut was informed by his government’s decision to live within its means and avoid proposing unrealizable projects.
The governor clarified that he decided to involve the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to monitor the implementation in order to prevent “political petitioners” from peddling lies against his government.
The governor appropriated N100 million to his “stomach infrastructure” programme, and also restored the scrapped Social Security Scheme for the indigent, which was initiated by the Kayode Fayemi-led government.
Mr. Fayose said 10,000 persons would continue to receive the sum of N5, 000 monthly from January, 2016.
Giving the details of the budget tagged Budget of Purposeful and Strategic Transformation, Mr. Fayose said N24billion and N44billion were earmarked for capital and recurrent expenditures respectively.
Under the capital expenditure, Mr. Fayose said the proposed airport, Oja Oba Market and the Flyover would become realities in 2016, being part of his efforts to give Ekiti a befitting facelift.
He expressed dissatisfaction with the huge recurrent figure of N43 billion, saying it was to enable him cater for workers’ welfare, which is a priority of his government.
He reiterated his position against the plan by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to either retrench or cut the N18, 000 minimum wage, saying his government won’t associate with any anti-people policy.
Mr. Fayose said he recorded a 70 per cent budget performance in 2015, despite the dwindling revenues caused by slump in oil prices in the international market.
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