Akpabio signs N500bn 2014 appropriation bill into law

The budget, made of up capital expenditure of N333billion, representing 85%, and recurrent estimates of over N165billion was recently passed by the House of Assembly after deliberations and scrutiny
Akpabio, while signing the bill into law, recently, explained that though N469.374 billion budget was sent to the House of Assembly, N498.5 billion was approved for the year.  He said that the state has, for seven years now, maintained less than 20 per cent of its budget for recurrent expenditure and above 80 per cent for capital expenditure.
The governor, who described 2014 budget as an optimistic one, expressed his worry with the short fall in revenue of about 39 per cent, last year, due to  drop in revenue from the Federation Account occasioned by oil bunkering, vandalism and theft.
The governor said: “This year’s budget would focus primarily on completion of ongoing projects in the state. Among the three projects we are going to complete are Tropicana Entertainment Centre and Akwa Ibom International Stadium.”
Akpabio announced the introduction of  International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) to improve financial reporting by public sector entities, assessments of the resource allocation decisions made by governments,  transparency and  accountability.