•NASS accuses Transport Minister, Amaechi, of padding
•We seek quick resolution to crisis-Minister
By Adetutu Folasade-Koyi, Kemi Yesufu and Fred Itua, Abuja
The fresh controversy over the 2016 budget, yesterday, assumed a worrisome dimension, as a text message, purportedly circulated to chairmen and deputies of the 96 standing committees’ of the House of Representatives, was leaked.
It also emerged yesterday that the Senate and the House of Representatives are singing discordant tunes on inclusion of the N60 billion Lagos-Calabar rail project.
In one breath, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, who chairs the in a personally signed statement, said although the project was not included in the version forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari, he disclosed that it was Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi who presented it during a budget defence session.
This did not jell with Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas who bluntly said Amaechi should rather be accused of budget padding.
Namdas said at a press conference in Abuja yesterday that the National Assembly is statutorily bound to consider budget estimates from only the president and not a minister.
Earlier in the day, a purported text message was allegedly circulated by the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Appropriation, Jibrin Abdulmunin. In the said text message, Abdulmunin begged his colleagues to defend the adjustment and additional inputs added to the budget.
The purported text message is coming on the heels of a fresh revelation by the Senate Committee Chairman on Land Transport, Gbenga Ashafa, who revealed in a press statement he personally signed that President Muhammadu Buhari included the Lagos-Calabar rail line in the budget.
Abdumunin declined to comment when Daily Sun sought his reaction to the text. He did not respond to text messages sent to his mobile telephone number and did not return telephone calls either.
But, in his statement, Ashafa detailed how Amaechi eventually sent a supplementary copy of the ministry’s budget to the committee which contained the said project.
“I confirm that the Lagos-Calabar rail line was not in the original document that was presented to the National Assembly by the Executive. However, subsequently, at the budget defence session before the Senate Committee on Land Transport, Amaechi did inform the committee of the omission of the Lagos-Calabar rail modernisation project. The minister noted that the amount needed for the counterpart funding for both the Lagos-Kano and Lagos-Calabar rail modernisation projects was N120 billion being N60 billion per project…
“In so doing, the committee observed that the Lagos-Kano rail rehabilitation project had been allocated the sum of N52 billion as against the sum of N60 billion which the minister requested as counterpart funding while no allocation whatsoever was made for the Lagos-Calabar rail line.
“Hence, the sum of N54 billion that was discovered by the Senate Committee on Land Transport to be floating in the budget of the Ministry of Transportation as presented by the Executive was injected into augmenting the funds needed for counterpart funding of both projects (Lagos to Kano and Lagos to Calabar Rail modernisation), as at the time the committee defended its report before the senate committee on Appropriation. The Lagos to Calabar rail modernisation project was therefore included in the Senate Committee on Land Transports recommendation to the Senate Committee on Appropriations,” Senator Ashafa explained.
On his part, Namdas stood his ground that details of the rail projects were submitted after Buhari had presented the budget to the National Assembly. “I have said it that if you agree that Mr. president did not send in that project in the budget, it settles the question if the National Assembly removed it from the budget. What we are taking about here is somebody suggesting that we rejected what was in the budget and we removed it and in the process, they are trying to cause a problem between us and our brothers in the South and this is not good. I have said it that if you agree that Mr. president did not send in that project in the budget, it settles the question if the National Assembly removed it from the budget.
“Secondly, nobody in this country is allowed by law to send anything to the National Assembly in terms of appropriation other than the president. So, if a minister comes with something additional to what the president brought, it is a case of this budget padding people talk about”, he stressed.
Speaking with the Daily Sun on the issue of reallocating provisions for important health interventions such as the purchase of polio vaccines and drugs for AIDS treatment, chairman House Committee on Health Services, Chike Okafor described the stories as incorrect.
Regardless, a source in the Transportation Ministry told Daily Sun on Monday evening that the Appropriations Committee chairman in the House of Representatives should “tell Nigerians why the Lagos – Kano project allocation increased from N60 billion– where did the extra allocation come from, if a major item was not removed from the budget? Also, the airport projects, which part of the supposed “overshot” funds were moved to, were already provided for under the Aviation subsection in the ministry’s budget. Since he was referring people to the original budget, let him also show the people where either N60 billion or N92 billion was reflected in the original budget for the Lagos – Kano rail project? What has football fields and such other projects, which allocations were diverted to, have to do with Ministry of Transportation?”
When Daily Sun contacted Senator Udoma for his reaction, his Media Adviser, Mr. Akpandem James said his boss is only interested in resolution of the budget controversy so that it can be assented to by President Buhari when he returns from China.
“The ministry is not interested in joining issues with anybody on the matter but to see how contending issues are resolved speedily so the president can sign the budget immediately he returns from China.