Taraba State Govt Proposes N420 million For 396 Political Office Holders, 2017 Budget

The Office of the Secretary to the State Government in Taraba has proposed the sum of N420,157,020.00 for the monthly salaries of 20 Commissioners, 76 Special Advisers,131 Senior Special Assistants, 22 Special Assistants, 28 Chairmen of Boards and Parastatals and 119 members of Boards and Parastatals.

This was made known during the budget defence of the office of the Secretary to the State Government, in the just concluded budget defence at the Taraba state House of Assembly Monday.

According to the Secretary to the State Government, Anthony Jellason, who appeared before the House Committee on Justice, Judiciary and Cabinet Affairs, the relative rise in figures was due to the rise in number of political appointees.

The Committee also faulted the Civil Service Commission for hasty sale of employment forms and that it should have waited until the executive approves the recruitment of personnel and capture it in the proposed budget for 2017.

The Chairman of the State Civil Service , Fidelis Kaigama, however revealed, to the dismay of the Committee, that the Commission, had never prepared a budget since his assumption of office and that for the seven years he has been there, only N1 million was allocated to him as running cost. He regretted the poor state of the Commission and pleaded with the House to come to the rescue.

The Committee, which is chaired by Bashir Mohammed, APC, Nguroje constituency, however asked the Chairman of the Commission to liaise with the State Planning Commission and the House Committee on Finance, in order to resolve the anomaly.

During the last day of the budget defence, several Ministries, departments and agencies, including the Deputy Governor’s office, Office of the Head of Service and the Bureau for Public Procurement, defended their estimates for 2017.