Standup9ja: Budget faces fresh hurdle at N/Assembly
Legislators have delayed forwarding the 2017 budget to the
presidency for assent after allegations of illegal alterations were raised by
some members yesterday, Standup9ja has learnt.
The two chambers of National Assembly passed the budget
Thursday after several months of delay.
However, it was gathered that the allegations are already
creating ripples among some senators.
Many of them are said to be calling for the document to be
properly scrutinised and the illegal insertions weeded out before it is
presented to the presidency for assent.
Accusing fingers are being pointed at the Senate works
committee as being responsible for the alterations lately discovered in the
budget.
The committee is headed by Kabiru Gaya (APC, Kano) who is
said to be outside the country at the moment and therefore could not be reached
for comment.
Some senators claim projects approved for their constituencies
are now missing in the budget just passed by the National Assembly.
Senators are also piqued that the works committee inserted
into the budget projects for Trunk B and Trunk C roads which are entirely the
responsibilities of the states and local governments.
“I know of some senators that have complained bitterly about
it. He (Gaya) inserted even local governments’ roads in the budget. There are
instances that state roads were also inserted. How can one do that? Those roads
are the exclusive rights of states and local governments.
“Again, some senators complained that he tempered with their
proposals for federal road projects domiciled in their senatorial districts.
This is something that they’re already looking at even at the Senate level before
forwarding the document to the Executive for assent,” a source familiar with
the matter told Standup9ja yesterday.
“This is what is delaying the budget submission. But besides
that, the National Assembly needs to have a clean copy without mistakes before
sending it to the Executive,” the source added.
When our correspondents sought to know if the same challenge
obtains in the House of Representatives, the source said no.
Another source said hopefully, all issues would be resolved
within this week and a clean copy
transmitted to the acting president for assent.
One lawmaker said
House members were currently discussing a new sharing formula for constituency
projects adopted by the leadership of the House of Reps, which surrendered N5
billion, out of its traditional N20bn, to the rest of members.
This, he said, could bring about further delays.
“You know they (leadership) used to take N20bn, but this
time around they took only N15bn and left N5bn for members. So, the sharing
formula is still being handled to avoid any rancour among members,” the
lawmaker said.
The spokesperson of the Senate, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi
(APC, Niger) was unavailable for comments as he was said to be attending a
meeting last night when our correspondent called him.
Attempts to get reaction of the House spokesman, Abdulrazak
Namdas (APC, Adamawa), were not successful as he was said to be away in South
Africa for a Pan-African Parliament assignment.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on National
Assembly matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, also confirmed the budget had not
been transmitted to the executive.
“It is not yet transmitted but I’m in contact with the
National Assembly authorities and management. They have confirmed that they are
certifying page by page of the document. It will be ready within a very short
period, “he said in a phone interview.
Osinbajo meets ministers, Emefiele over budget funding
Meanwhile, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday convened
a meeting of the National Economic Management Team (NEMT) to review the 2017
budget.
This is even as the details of the budget, passed by the
National Assembly on Thursday, are yet to be transmitted to the executive.
The lifespan of the 2016 budget has since May 5 come to an
end.
Our correspondent learnt that the meeting, which was held at
the Vice President’s wing of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja,
discussed the funding of the passed 2017 budget.
The National Economic Management Team, headed by Osinbajo,
is the Federal Government’s think-thank
responsible for the formulation of the nation’s economic policy
direction.
The National Assembly had jerked up the 2017 budget from
N7.298 trillion earlier proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari last December to
N7.441 trillion. They also raised the proposed oil benchmark from $42.5 to
$44.5 per barrels.
Yesterday’s meeting was attended by Finance Minister Kemi
Adeosun, Budget and National Planning Minister Udoma Udo Udoma, Trade Industry
and Investment Minister Okechukwu Enalemah, Water Resources Minister Suleiman
Adamu and Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibrin.
Also in attendance were the governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele as well as the directors-general of the Debt
Management Office, the Budget Office of the Federation, the Nigerian Investment
Promotion Council and the National Bureau of Statistics, among others.
A government official, who was at the meeting that lasted
over three hours, told our correspondent that the session brainstormed on how
to make funds available for the budget after the presidential assent.
The official, however, stressed that the Presidency was
still awaiting official transmission of the budget from the National Assembly.
“The meeting discussed the funding of the 2017 budget. It is
on how to make sure that once the budget is signed, the resources that will be
utilised to fund it are available. The meeting also discussed how funds will be
released.
“The budget is still in the National Assembly. We are still
waiting for the formal transmission of the budget document that was passed last
week,” the official said.
Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, also confirmed via
Twitter that the meeting reviewed major issues including the 2017 budget.
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