Group Faults Bayelsa Govt Over N100m Xmas Decoration

A transparency group, the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, yesterday berated the Bayelsa State government over its alleged poor and insensitive allocation of state resources in the 2012 budget passed by the State House of Assembly, faulting the N100million proposed  for Christmas decorations.
The group’s Executive Director, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, told newsmen in Yenagoa that the outcome of the study conducted by the group on the 2012 budget as passed into law by the State House of Assembly showed that the state budget still followed the incremental budgeting approach instead of zero  budgeting.
Igbuzor,who was represented at the event by the Programme Officer of the group, Mr. Monday Osasa, noted that the poor attitude of the present administration to budgeting showed as there were meager allocations made for the completion of the Melford Okilo Hospital and the campaign against  HIV/AIDS  in the state.
He said: “this is evident in the Chief Melford Okilo General Hospital where about N1.4b has been budgeted for its completion in the 2012 budget.When our project team got to the site, they could not ascertain any work done as there was no one on site to provide such information.But,the team observed that this project has been under construction since the year 2000  and successive governments in the state have been budgeting and adding to this structure.”