As Ministries, Department and Agencies of government (MDAs) in Ogun State today commenced the 2014 budget defence at the State House Assembly, Ministry of Information and Strategy will continue to re-equip and upgrade its infrastructure to ensure continuous publicity of government’s activities.
Commissioner in charge of the Ministry, Barrister Yusuph Olaniyonu who gave this assurance added that adequate staff welfare package would also be made a priority in the next fiscal year.
Olaniyonu said that a total of N481.058m is being proposed to be expended on personnel, overhead, recurrent and capital projects, adding that comprehensive furniture overhaul and provision of operational vehicles for senior staff were part of projected aspirations of the agency in the coming year.
Giving a breakdown, Olaniyonu noted that projected recurrent expenditure stood at N411m, capital expenditure would gulp N70m, capital receipt projected to be N2million
He said in the coming year, the Ministry plans to procure new video and photo cameras to replace obsolete ones, noting that a befitting monitoring room equipped with television and recording gadgets would also be put in place to enable the agency record all broadcast media news mention of the State government’s activities for record and reference purposes.
“We intend to increase concentration on capital, recurrent projects and provision of utility vehicles for the senior staff as part of improved welfare packages for workers. More so, a befitting monitoring room of high standard is been proposed for improved documentation of Governments activities via electronic media stations”, he said.
Meanwhile, the State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Mrs. Yewande Amusan presented a budget of N1.03 billion for the 2014 fiscal year A breakdown indicated that N700m would be expended on capital expenditure, while N334m is set aside for recurrent.
Mrs. Amusan also promised to generate the sum of N17million for the year, promising that the Ministry would consolidate on the transformation of culture and tourism into economically viable sector in the year.
She further assured that her ministry would continue to identify, preserve, promote and propagate our indigenous cultural heritage and tourism potentials towards socio-economic development of the state.
Declaring the session open earlier, the Speaker, Hon. Suraj Ishola Adekunbi, said budget defence was meant to justify proposed expenditure, and avail people the opportunity of observing the process and thereby promoting accountability and transparency.
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