Delta State House of Assembly Committee on Special Duties has urged the Bureau for Special Duties to perform better in the 2025 fiscal year.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Anthony Alapala gave the advice when the Bureau appeared before the members for its 2025 budget defence at the Assembly complex of the Delta State House of Assembly.
Reacting to the 9.25% budget performance of the Bureau in the outgoing 2024, the Committee Chairman who represents Burutu 1 Constituency frowned at the claim of not being able to access funds for its operations.
Flanked by other members of the Committee, including the Majority Leader, Hon Emeka Nwaobi, James Augoye, Matthew Omonade, Bernard Odior, Charles Emetulu and Blessing Achoja, the Lawmaker sued for better performance in 2025 as Deltans were looking up to better services.
Apparently not impressed with the low performance figure of the Bureau within the period under review, Hon Nwaobi, enjoined the commissioner to ensure that he speed up action in the coming year in order to key perfectly into the MORE agenda of the State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori.
“I must say that the Committee is not impressed with your performance ratio of Nine per cent in the 2024 budget. That to us, was very poor.
“In this coming year, you should up your game in order to add impetus on the fiscal consolidation vision of the State Government’s 2025 budget.
“It is not how far, but how well we are able to go. So, we encourage you to do more in the coming year so that Deltans would benefit from the MORE agenda of His Excellency, the Governor of our dear State.
“This advice is important because, when you succeed as a Ministry, then, the State would have succeeded” Nwaobi said.
The Commissioner Bureau for Special Duties Terry Etacherure in his Budget defence solicited for additional funds to enable the Bureau perform optimally as expected.
He said the initial 2.6 billion naira approved was grossly inadequate, even as he promised Deltans of better services in 2025.
Speaking with Journalists shortly after his budget defence, the commissioner, while blaming the poor performance on poor release of funds, however, lauded the committee for the advice, just as he assured Deltans that 2025 would witness improved performance.
Other affiliate agencies that appeared for budget defense under the Ministry include Project Monitoring, Sustainable Development Growth, SDG, Job and Wealth Creation Bureau and Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency.