Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) has proposed to spend N10,197, 228, 268, in 2021 fiscal year. This was little above N10, 087, 228, 268, that was submitted to the Council legislators by the Chairman, Abdullahi Candido.The breakdown of the budget indicated that recurrent expenditure will engulp N4.3 billion, while N5.8 billion will be spent on capital projects.AMAC Chairman, Abdullahi Candido, who signed the revised budget document in Abuja, on Wednesday, expressed hope that the budget will help the Council to consolidate on the achievements made over the years.He, specifically, mentioned that appreciable part of the budget will be used to complete ongoing projects in the Council and offset huge financial debt owed contractors that have executed several projects for the Council.He, however, expressed fear that the implementation of the budget may suffer set back because of the poor cooperation being received from FCT Administration particularly in the areas of statutory financial allocation and releases to the AMAC and five other area councils in FCT.He said: “FCTA should kindly release to the Area Councils our share of revenue generated by FCT Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS). It’s a constitutional mandate and requirement. The money should be released to the Councils so they can use it to carry out developmental projects for the people.“What is expected of FCT Administration is to put in place template and measures to properly monitor the transparency of the usage of the resources. It’s unfair that Area Councils would be suffering because of paucity of funds to run the Councils meanwhile huge funds belonging to the Councils are unconstitutionally withheld by FCT Administration.“FCTA should see Area Councils as integral part of the Administration and not as parastatals or agencies. All six Area Councils in FCT are organs of government constituted by law. They are being run by democratically elected representatives of the FCT people, and therefore should be supported and encouraged by FCT Administration to champion the cause of grassroot development in FCT.”He, thus, challenged the Councilors and every member of the Council to work assiduously to ensure improved revenue that would assist the Council in the implementation of the budget.
Source – The Sun
