COVID-19: Enugu Proposes 13.67% Reduction Of 2020 Budget

The Enugu State government, Tuesday, engaged her citizenry on the plan to revise the state’s 2020 budget and tailor it down to align with the current economic realities as a result of the outbreak of Covid-19.

THE WHISTLER recalls that the federal government and all 36 states of the federation were recently mandated to revise their budgets in line with the templates adopted by the National Executive Council to be able to adapt to the current situation globally.

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, during the government-citizenry engagement, held at The Dome Event Centre, Enugu, informed the citizenry that the budget revision became necessary because of ‘the economic impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak, especially the drastic reduction in government earnings, arising from the sudden collapse of the global demand for price of crude oil’.

The governor, represented by his deputy, Mrs Cecilia Ezeilo, said the engagement with the citizenry underscored the state government’s commitment towards participatory democracy and transparency, and ‘in fulfillment of our obligations under the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 and the conditions of the World Bank budget policy support partnership as well as our open government partnership (OGP) obligations’.

In her words, “The budget of the Enugu State government is the business of all the stakeholders and opinion leaders as well as all Ndi Enugu at home and in the diaspora. Their brilliant and patriotic inputs and the faithfulness made our 2019 budget achieve a performance of 80%.”

The state commissioner for budget and planning, Dr David Ugwunta, stated that the state government had carried out similar exercises during the preparation of the 2020 budget, which he said, offered citizens the opportunity to make their inputs. According to him, the development propelled the need to look at the 2020 budget, and to bring it down and align it to the current economic realities.

Dr Ugwunta, therefore, informed the public that the state government proposed a 13.67 percent reduction in the 2020 budget size of N169, 557,658,300.00, which amounts to N23, 183,017,220.00. He said the proposed revised budget estimate was N146, 374,641,080.00, while the savings and additional sum required were N53, 617,927,900 and N27, 455,910,680.00 respectively.

The commissioner further said that the 2020 budget approved recurrent and capital expenditure of N68,790,000,000.00 and N100,767,658,300.00 was revised to N69,790,000,000.00 and N76,584,641,080 respectively, representing 48 percent and 52 percent.

While seeking the support of the residents, Dr Ugwunta assured them that the revised budget, if approved, would guarantee the state government’s firm footing to address their developmental needs and respond to the challenges associated with Covid-19 pandemic.

The event was witnessed by the deputy speaker of the state House of Assembly, the Rt Hon Uche Ugwu; the secretary to the state government, Prof Simon Uchenna Ortuanya; chairman of the state’s traditional rulers, HRH Igwe Lawrence Agubuzu; permanent secretary, state Ministry of Budget and Planning, Mr Casmir Ugwu; members of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), among others.