The presidency has taken another
swipe at the national assembly over the 2018 budget, accusing the lawmakers of
not being contended with the N170 billion funds for constituency projects.
Reacting to the national
assembly’s claims that alterations in the budget were justifiable, the
presidency said it is surprised the lawmakers were cutting allocations of
national projects, despite having “enough”.
While signing the budget on
Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari accused the lawmakers of adding 6,403
projects of their own into it at the “detriment” of other relevant projects.
But the lawmakers responded on
Friday, saying the alterations were to ensure equitable distribution of
projects across the six geopolitical zones.
However, in its response, the
presidency in a statement issued by Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, said
the only increase the lawmakers had suggested was that of the benchmark price
by $5, from $45 to $50.
Below is the full statement from
the presidency:
FURTHER CLARIFICATIONS ON THE
DISTORTED 2018 BUDGET – PRESIDENCY
Sequel to the response of the
National Assembly justifying its distortion of the 2018 Budget, the following
clarifications have become necessary.
1. Throughout the budget
consideration process the executive, through the Ministry of Budget and
National Planning, was in touch with the National Assembly. The executive was
approached by the National Assembly who indicated that they intended to
increase the benchmark price by US$5, from US$45 to US$50. Out of the US$5
increase the National Assembly informed the Executive that they intended to
utilize US$2 (amounting to about N170 billion) for projects selected by
themselves. They asked the Executive to suggest important projects that could
be accommodated with the funds arising from the balance of US$3.
2. After some consideration, the
Executive was of the view that an increase in the benchmark price of crude oil
to US$50 was not unrealistic and the President decided to accept this in the
spirit of compromise required for a successful budget exercise. The Executive
had, in that spirit, suggested that from the additional funds arising out of
the US$3 increase, $1.25 from the increase should not be appropriated as
expenditure, but utilized to reduce the deficit in the budget. The Executive
therefore restricted itself to submitting, for the consideration of the
National Assembly, important items that could be funded from US$1.75 of the
US$3 increase. NASS eventually raised the benchmark price to US$51, apparently
to accommodate the additional allocations to Health and NDDC.
3. The Executive is therefore
surprised that with an additional sum of N170 billion Naira available for the
National Assembly to spend on Constituency Projects, together with the sum of
N100 billion Naira, already provided for in the Budget, that the National
Assembly should feel it necessary to cut allocations to important national
projects, and thereby distort the Budget, in order to further increase their
allocation for Constituency projects. How much is enough!
4. The President’s position is
clear from paragraph 12k of the President’s speech, where he said “About 70 new
road projects have been inserted into the budget of the Federal Ministry of
Power, Works and Housing. In doing so, the National Assembly applied some of
the additional funds expected from the upward review of the oil price benchmark
to the Ministry’s vote. Regrettably, however, in order to make provision for
some of the new roads, the amounts allocated to some strategic major roads have
been cut by the National Assembly”.
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