Politics
THE Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has directed the staff to begin 2020 budget preparation immediately to enhance budgetary process.
Onu gave the directive in a meeting with the Permanent Secretary, Directors and heads of all the parastatal and agencies under the ministry in Abuja on Wednesday.
The minister said the staff should start meeting on Thursday to align with the vision of the Federal Government to return the budget circle to January-December fiscal year.
“ President Muhammadu Buhari is willing to return the budget circle to January-December as you know that we have not had a regular budget circle.
“Luckily for us, the National Assembly has pledged to work with us and the President wants us to submit our budget estimates latest by September.
“ The officials of the Budget Office will be meeting with you in the next two weeks so you have to meet tomorrow to discuss this.
“ I want us to be the first ministry to submit budget estimates; we have done this in the past four years and I trust we will not fail,’’ he said.
Onu said the President expected them to put into use any money allocated to the ministry, saying “ we must work together as a team to achieve our mandate.’’
The minister said that the President was pleased with him that was why he got re-election for the second term.
Onu is among the 14 ministers that got re-appointed and they were all posted to their previous ministries.
He, however, pledged to operate open door policy and urged the staff to work with the newly inaugurated Minister of State, Mr Mohammed Abdullahi.
Also speaking, the minister of state called for the support from the staff to advance the development of science and technology in the country.
Abudullahi said he was assigned to work with Onu to achieve the transformation agenda of the government.
The Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Bitrus Nabusu, welcomed the two ministers and expressed willingness to work with them.
Nabusu said Onu advanced the cause of the ministry in his first term in office, adding that having two ministers would be a morale booster for the staff.
The two ministers are expected to meet with the management and staff as well as directors-general of agencies and parastatal under the ministry on Thursday.
The ministry has the mandate to facilitate the development and deployment of science and technology apparatus to enhance the pace of socio-economic development of the country. (NAN)
– Aug. 21, 2019 @ 18:09 GMT |
Tags: Onu directs staff to begin 2020 budget preparation
