- Insists on removal of illegal allocations before assent
By Adetutu Folasade- Koyi and Fred Itua, Abuja
THE Presidency and leaders of the National Assembly met on last night on discrepancies in the N6.06 trillion Appropriation Bill passed to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent last Thursday.
That would be the second meeting in 48 hours on the national document.
Presidency sources said the president was supposed to sign the budget at the weekend but the paddings and movement of funds were discovered on Friday, after the details were sent to each ministry for scrutiny.
On Saturday, indications emerged that some critical infrastructure projects in the 2016 budget were either cut off or allocations reduced to the barest minimum. Some of the key infrastructure project include railways.
“While the Lagos-Kano provision was left untouched, the Calabar- Lagos line was removed. The projects are to be funded jointly between the governments of China and Nigeria. It is one of the main reasons for the president’s trip to China.
“Also, the amount proposed for the completion of the Idu- Kaduna rail project which has reached an advanced stage was reduced by N8.7bn, a development which will make it difficult for the project to be completed.
“The other fundamental area noticed was in respect of completion of on-going road projects. While the executive provided for the completion of all major road projects across the country, the National Assembly reduced the amounts provided and, instead, included new roads which studies have not even been conducted.
“The amounts provided by the National Assembly for the projects can neither complete the on-going road projects nor the new ones proposed. At the end of the year, no significant progress would have been made.
“The other is in the health sector. Proposals made for the purchase of essential drugs for major health campaigns like polio and AIDS, for which the store is fast depleting were removed and the amounts allocated to provision of ambulance, which the ministry did not ask for.
“It was also observed that certain provisions made in the areas of Agriculture and Water Resources, to further the Federal Government’s diversification project, were either removed or reduced while the funds were moved to provision of rural health facilities and boreholes, for which provisions have been made elsewhere.
Regardless, Daily Sun gathered that at the meeting last night, two issues were germane: one, was for the budget details to be sent back to the National Assembly and corrected before the president returns or Buhari would sign and, on his return from China, send an Appropriation (Amendment) Bill to the lawmakers, removing all distortions in the budget.
The source said the second option can only happen “if there was a firm commitment at last night’s meeting.”
On Saturday, a source in one of the federal parastatals told Saturday Sun that based on the new discoveries in the budget, “the president is engaging further with the leadership of the National Assembly to resolve them and hopes that it would be resolved for his assent by the time he returns from his trip to China…”
Another source in one of the federal agencies disclosed that when the budget was received, “the sectoral allocations were sent to each minister to peruse and give feedback on the details.
“All the ministers complied and that was where money movements were discovered. The ministers have compiled what we can describe as “areas of disagreement,” and sent same to the Minister on Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma. That formed the fulcrum of the second meeting on the budget last night.”
Giving further insight, the source said what “the lawmakers did was to move money from key infrastructure for 2016 and put them in projects for their constituencies; projects that were not even on the table for discussion let alone making allocations for them.”
It was also gathered that, in order not to incur the wrath of the Executive, “the lawmakers did not add the amount to their statutory Constituency Projects” which provision has been made for in the budget.
Disagreement between the Presidency and the National Assembly started less than two weeks after President Buhari submitted the budget on December 22. Shortly after, there were reports that the budget was missing.
The fusion insisted the budget was not missing but was only withdrawn for corrections to be made, with regards to the figures and allocations.
Thereafter, there were reports that two versions of the budget were in circulation.
The status of the budget was resolved when, in January, the president confirmed that the budget was not missing but was only rejigged.
A final version was submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and it was passed late last month.
The National Assembly rebuffed attempts by Daily Sun to confirm their participation at the meeting on Saturday night. For the second day in a row, Senate Spokesman, Sabi Abdullahi, refused to pick his calls. Neither did he reply to a text message sent to his line.
His counterpart in the House of Representatives, Namdas Abdulrazak, however, said he was not aware of last night’s meeting.
“Truly, I am not aware that top officials of the National Assembly met with the president over the budget. The most important thing is that we have transmitted the details of the budget to Mr. President.
“We saw to it to that what he has set to achieve is done. We have not officially been told that the budget will be returned to the National Assembly by the president. This is the beginning of the year and this is the first time that the National Assembly and the president are working on the same budget.
“Remember when the president brought the supplementary budget last year. It got accelerated hearing and there was no controversy at all. As we continue to work together, we will understand ourselves. Naturally, it is a father and child relationship. We are going to understand ourselves.
Contacted on the new development, Buhari’s Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, simply replied: “On this matter, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has spoken in respect of the examination of the budget details.
“Until the Senate and the House of Representatives resume in plenary, I have nothing more to add.”