Late passage of Budget destructive to Economy, Obaseki tells Senators
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Wednesday lamented that late passage of budget by the National Assembly was destructive to the economy of the nation and warned that the situation must change if the nation must get the economy back on track.
I can tell you that it is frustrating and unfair for a state like Edo to pass its budget in December and now had to wait for another six months for the implementation of the budget due to the delay in the passage of the national budget,” he said.
Obaseki stated this when members of the Senate Committee on Works led by the Chairman, Senator Clifford Ordia, paid him a courtesy visit at Government House, Benin City.
According to him, “when a budget is passed during the rainy season, you don’t expect the contractors to do much. So we must look at these issues and ensure that we pass our budget on time, delay is destroying our economy since everything will be standstill.
Lamenting the bad state of the Benin- Auchi-Abuja road, Obaseki stressed the need to earmark certain fund, dedicated resources for some key federal roads and keep the roads open. Our rails and water ways are not developed and as such good road maintenance will affect our economic growth.
On the failed section of the Benin-Lokoja highway at Ekpoma, Governor Obaseki said he once told the Federal Comptroller of Works not to return to Benin if the contractors were not mobilised to site, adding that the failed portion of that road had paralysed the economy of the state as heavy traffic diverted through Ekpoma township destroyed the internal road network.
Senator Ordia informed Governor Obaseki that they were in the state to carry out on the spot assessment of the road so as to find solution to it.
Ordia, who noted that the level of work on the road was slow due to paucity of funds, however informed the governor that the contractor handling the Ekpoma axis of the Lokoja-Bénin highway has resumed work.
