By Nicholas Dechi
THE BENUE State House of Assembly, presided over by its Speaker, Hyacinth Dajoh, has summoned the Commissioner for Finance to appear before the lawmakers on Tuesday next week.
The commissioner, who is to appear alongside the ministry’s permanent secretary, is to explain why the accounts of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) were still frozen.
It could be recalled that Governor Hyacinth Alia had frozen all bank accounts of the state government, including those of MDAs during his inauguration on May 29, 2023.
The lawmakers took the decision sequel to a motion of urgent public importance moved by the Deputy Minority Whip, Mr Blessed Onah (PDP/Oju state constituency) during Wednesday’s plenary.
Onah told his colleagues that on March 21, 2024, the House unanimously passed four resolutions calling on Governor Hyacinth Alia to unfreeze all the frozen accounts to enable MDAs to function effectively.
He further stated that following the resolution, the governor, on March 22, 2024, directed the commissioner and the ministry to initiate and complete the unfreezing of the accounts as quickly as possible.
The deputy minority whip stressed that the ministry of finance needs to provide updates on the matter and others relating to fiscal responsibility, public procurement, and financial reporting to the public.
He expressed concern that from their last oversight visit, most of the MDAs were not functioning properly as their accounts remained frozen.
Mr Alfred Berger (APC/Makurdi North Constituency) seconded the motion, saying that it was apt and timely.
Berger added that he saw no reason why the house should continue to appropriate money for the state when MDAs were not properly funded.
The lawmaker stated that most of the MDAs budget performances were only 12 per cent, emphasising that such was an abysmal performance.
Meanwhile, Mr William Ortyom (PDP/Agasha Constituency) said that the executive arm was not determined to implement the budget as they should.
Ortyom corroborated Berger that no MDA had implemented its budget up to 20 per cent.
He called on the house to take a decisive stand by ensuring that in the next budget, they would only allocate the fund that the ministry spent in the previous year to them.
He reiterated that the allocation of funds to them would be based on their budget performances.
The Majority Leader, Mr Saater Tiseer, urged the Committee on Appropriation to request a detailed performance of the budgets of MDAs to enable them to carry out their legislative functions.
The speaker in his ruling said that when the commissioner appears, he should apologise to the house and the entire state for the stress his actions and inactions had caused the state public service. (NAN)
