By Abdallah el-Kurebe
Sokoto state government has restated that measures would be enhanced in order to achieve implementation of the 2018 budget.
The state Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Bala Kokani disclosed this to news men in an interview shortly after defending the ministry’s 2018 Budget proposal before the state House of Assembly Committee on Finance and Appropriation in Sokoto on Tuesday.
According to him, “We are redoubling our commitment on measures that will see us achieving remarkable implementation of the 2018 budget,” Kokani said.
He stressed that the government had since identified various measures to ensure more revenue generation to enable adequate funding that would allow for improved implementation of the budget.
“We are fully committed to ensure the best percentage of budget implementation in our various Ministry’s, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), to enable more development in the state. All leakages identified across MDAs in the state have been successfully plugged. This success has since yielded the overall increment of the state revenue generation,” he said.
Also Chairman of Sokoto State Board of Internal Revenue (BIR), Alhaji Dalhatu said there was an increase of over 200 percent in the state revenue generation in 2017, adding that BIR generated over N9 billion for the state in 2017 as against the N3 billion generated in 2016.
“This is a great success as over 200 per cent increment has been recorded and more will surely be achieved as other leakages are been identified,” he said.
The Director-General, Sokoto State Bureau for Public Procurement and Public Private Partnership, Hajiya Zubaida Aliyu gave assurance that the Bureau would protect public funds.
The House of Assembly Committee Chairman, Hon. Malami Muhammad commended the ministry’s commitment in ensuring the safety of public funds.
