The Expenditure and Income Bill designed by the Governor of Bayelsa state, Chief Timipre Sylva, to regulate financial management in the state has sparked off a disagreement between the lawmakers and major stakeholders including non-governmental organisations.
The aggrieved stakeholders had accused members of the House of Assembly of conniving with unnamed top corrupt civil servants in the state to kill the bill.
Sylva had in 2009 adopted a procedure of cutting down on financial excesses of principal civil servants in the state and this created disaffection within the ranks of workers who felt that the governor undertook the action without legal backing.
It was gathered that reacting to the gale of protest that greeted the action and desiring to develop a sustainable process of monitoring expenditure and income in the state, Sylva had developed the BEITI Bill and sent it to the lawmakers.
A group of non-governmental organisations under the aegis of the Bayelsa State Non-Governmental Organisations Forum have however criticised the House over non-passage of the bill.
The Chairman of the forum, Mr. Godson Jim-Dorgu, in a statement made available to our correspondent insisted that “some very senior public office-holders in the state government are lobbying to kill the BEITI bill.”
He said, “while bills for procurement of frivolous loans and bonds have been passed with the speed of lightening, the BEITI bill has not been given accelerated hearing and subsequent passage into law several months after.”
Reacting to the matter, the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Nestor Binabo, said there was no plan to stop the bill adding that the document would become law in two weeks.
He attributed the delay in passing the bill to its poor drafting saying that the lawmakers were critically reviewing it in order to bring it up to the required standard.
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Controversies surround BEITI Bill