GOV UMAHI SIGNS 2017APPROPRIATION BILL INTO LAW.

The Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Nweze Umahi, has signed the 2017 appropriation bill of  N127,233,074,799 and the   state Public Procurement and Related Matters AmendmentBill into law.

 

While performing the ceremony  at  the  Government House, Abakaliki,   Umahi said that much was expected to come from  his administration's  agricultural programme.

He consequently directed  key officers in  agriculture    to structure the sector  in such a way that it would generate  very high revenue for the state.

Umahi stressed that hardwork was  needed in addition to prayers and faith  to achieve the best result. 

The governor  said, "If you check, you will  find out that we have a lot of budget coming from our agricultural programme and that's why I said to the   Commissioner for Agriculture and the Secretary to the State Government  and    Senior Special Adviser , Rice Production that we must have to structure our agricultural sector  so as to make money. 

"Fasting and prayer will not achieve this budget alone. It has to be a combination of our faith, our honest approach to governance, very hard work  and then fasting and prayers."

He identified abandoned  projects and poor quality works as things hindering the growth of the state and disclosed that the amendment law would ensure that projects were  executed according to specification. 

"One of the factors setting us backwards as a state is the issue of abandoned projects and poor quality works in our state and there is no way this state can develop and move forward if we continue to do poor quality work," the governor said in a statement on Friday by his spokesman, Emma Anya.

  "The amendment law is to put our contractors on check. Never again will some take our money and vanish into   thin air,"  he added.

The governor emphasised that the road projects being executed by his  administration were  stone- based, adding that the aim was to make the roads  last for a long time.

He said, "Virtually all the roads that were done in the past four years are been reworked but good enough, we are using stone-base  no matter the size of the road.  Not only stone-base, we are doing very wonderful work.  We are working to please God and to lay an irreversible foundation for the growth of this state."

 

The governor used the opportunity to  commended the House of Assembly members for their observation on the poor performance of members of Internal Revenue Board but  promised to reassign them.

Umahi said,   "We thank you for your observation regarding the Board of Internal Revenue because we understand that the key factor of rating any  state is the  IGR it has.  That's why I thank the House of Assembly for its  observation and advise.   I think we were also disturbed about the performances of the board members  and we feel we need to inject younger persons into the board  and reassign the members."