Hon. Williams and interior of CRSHA Chamber
Peter Bassey|18 October 2016
Today, the 18th of October 2016, was indeed a hectic day for members of the Cross River State House Assembly Finance and Appropriation Committee CRSHA, as they host four key MDAs in respect to defending the reversed 2016 appropriation bill (budget).
Speaking before the commencement of the exercise, the Chairman of the committee Rt. Hon. Jones Eteng Williams says the committee is carrying out its statutory responsibility which is intended to make Cross River better and encouraged all MDA to be responsive.
The four MDAs present were Ministry of Education, State Electrification Agency, Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Cross River State Water Board Limited.
The Commissioner of Education Hon. Goddy Ettah led other major players in the education sector including Secondary Education Board, Science and Technical Education Board, Scholarship Board, State Universal Basic Education Board and Adult Education Board. One peculiar issue observed by the committee during this defense is that, all the sub-sectors under the education ministry have not accessed funds as contemplated in the 2016 budget, a situation most committee members frowned at due to the relevance of the ministry.
The state electrification agency which was led by two former members of the CRSHA Rt. Hon. Jacob Otu Enyia and Rt. Hon. Uduak Akiba Eyo who double as Director General and Director Maintenance of the agency respectively. The DG, Rt. Hon. Barr. Jacob Otu while addressing the committee begged the committee to look at some grey areas which were intially not contemplated by the agency's budget, adding that only 12.28% so far have been accessed by the agency.
More so, the Commissioner for Petroleum Resources, who was a former Deputy Speaker in the assembly, Rt. Hon. Itaya Nyong also defended his ministry's budget. The commissioner prayed the committee to expunge some items in his ministry's budget, stating that it has already been taken care of in the 2017 contemplated budget.
Peter Bassey
Writes from Calabar
peterenyievi@gmail.com
