20 July 2012, Sweetcrude, ABUJA – PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has forwarded a budget proposal of N250 billion for the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, for 2012 to the Senate for consideration.
The President in a letter to the Senate, Thursday, read by Senate President David Mark, said the budget was meant to effectively impact on the on-going government efforts to develop the Niger Delta region.
In the letter, titled: “Presentation of the 2012 Budget Proposal for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), ” Jonathan, said:
“Pursuant to section 18(1) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Act of 2000, I wish to submit the 2012 estimate of the expenditure of the Commission for the kind consideration and approval of the National Assembly.
“The Commission has submitted a budget proposal of N250,857,930,000 only for 2012, as against N261,037,690,536 only approved in 2011, representing a decrease of 3.9 per cent.
“It is noted that the budget aims at consolidating the on-going efforts to effectively impact on the region.
“To achieve this, the 2012 budget will concentrate on the timely completion of on-going projects, hence there are no new projects planned for the year.”
A breakdown of the budget showed that N17.78 billion is for personnel and overhead, N232.06billion, is for development interventions and N1.018billion, is devoted to internal capital requirement.
Mark said the Senate would only consider the budget after resumption in September, since “we have consistently warned that budgets should be submitted on time.”
