2019 Appropriation: Candido signs N8.4bn AMAC ‘Budget of Hope’

By Stanley Onyekwere

The Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Abdullahi Adamu Candido yesterday signed 2018 appropriation bill into law, precisely the first working day after his re-election for a second term in office.
Candido assented to the appropriation bill in the tune of N8,416,186,995, barely three months after it was laid before the Council legislative chamber.
Recall that the Candido’s-led AMAC executive presented the 2019 fiscal document christened: “Budget of Hope”, in the tune of N8.257, 881,086 to its legislative arm.
Our correspondent reports that AMAC speaker, Councillors and heads of the AMAC bureaucracy as well as political appointees witnessed the signing of the budget, which has total capital expenditure of 4,355,645,619, representing 51.75 % of the total sum.
While assenting to the appropriation bill, Candido hailed the legislature for the passage, thereby setting the pace of the effective execution of projects in the Council.
The AMAC Chariman said with the assent to the budget, they are going to hit the ground running immediately.
He however noted that the budget is to be protected, secured and defended by how much resources at the disposal of the council.
According to him, “The budget by the grace of God like it has christened budget of hope, we intend to give the people of AMAC a new hope of life, fresh ideas and innovations, so that we will continue to provide service to the people.
“We cannot make any good of this budget except we have abundant resources around. That’s why in the last three months or so, we have been trying to reinvigorate our Revenue Division.
“It’s the responsibility of this administration to charge that of the office in particular to be on the speed lane of ensuring that revenue sources are encouraged to ensure that the business of partnership between us and those sources are respected.”
He continued: “If any payment has to be done, and there is no budgetary provision, it must pit on hold until such provision is made.
“For us, every Kobo that belongs to this Area Council, will be accounted for. We have a responsibility before our people and God that we are representing.
We have to fight corruption to it’s kneels, by ensuring that we blocked leakages in the system.
“The resources are out there, and we must not complain as we have every reason to go all out, to ensure that the resources that are meant for this Area Council are achieved.”
Also speaking, AMAC Head of Administration, Alhaji Ahmed Yahaya Khana, who described the occasion as a epoch making event, commended the legislators for actually working assiduously to pass the budget into law.
Khana reiterated that with the signing of the budget, the Council will hit the ground running, in terms of implementing what has been assented to.
“In the last couple of months, our implementation with regards to the 25% allowed to be expended within the treshold was very low. This is because you cannot expend on capital if the budget is not assented to, so you only expend on recurrent.
“That’s why most of our contractors who come, we begin to actually appealed to them. But now that it has been assented by the executive Chariman, we the careerists we begin to implement it,” he assured.