The house of representatives says
the alterations made to the 2018 budget are justifiable.
AbdulRazak Namdas, spokesman of
the lower legislative chamber, said this in a statement issued after President
Muhammadu Buhari signed the 9.12 trillion budget into law.
Buhari had expressed reservations
with some alterations in the budget, wondering why the lawmakers introduced
6,403 projects into it.
“The national assembly made cuts
amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to
them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to
N578 billion. Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if
not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation. Some of the new
projects inserted by the national assembly have not been properly
conceptualized, designed and costed and will, therefore, be difficult to
execute,” the president had said, disclosing that he would send a supplementary
budget.
But in his response, Namdas said
the national assembly “has a job to do”.
He also absolved the lawmakers of
blames for the delay in the implementation of the January-to-December budget
cycle, one of the complaints raised by Buhari.
Namdas said heads of ministries,
department and agencies (MDAs) should take responsibility for the delay.
“The house of representatives is
appreciative of President Muhammadu Buhari in signing the 2018 Appropriation
Bill into law and wish to make the following observations,” the statement read.
“That the budget is usually a
proposal by the executive to the national assembly, which the latter is given
the constitutional power of appropriation to alter, make additions, costs or
reduce as it may deem necessary. The Legislature is not expected to be a
rubber-stamp by simply approving the Executive proposals and returning the
budget to Mr. President. Therefore, the additions Mr. President complained of
in his speech are justifiable.
“We are on the same page with Mr.
President in his desire to return our budget cycle to January-December. By the
provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, the budget estimates should
be with the national assembly around September of the year. In the case of the
2018 budget, the estimates came behind schedule in November 2017, even though
this attempt was seen as one of the earliest in recent years. Going forward, we
urge the executive to speed up the reporting time to the National Assembly by
complying fully with the FRA.
“Besides, there were delays that
should be blamed on the heads of MDAs. Mr. President will recall that he had to
direct ministers and heads of agencies to go to the National Assembly to defend
their proposals. This came after the National Assembly had persistently raised
the alarm over the non-cooperative attitudes of these government officials. On
this grounds, the delay in passing the budget cannot be blamed on the
legislature.
“New projects in budget. On this
aspect, we have to remind Mr. President that we are representatives of our
people and wish to state that even the common man deserves a mention in the
budget by including projects that will directly affect his life positively.
Some of the projects designed by the executive, as high-sounding as their names
suggest, do not meet the needs of the common man.”
He also defended the N14.5
billion increase in the budget of the national assembly, saying the lawmakers
slashed their budget compared to 2015.
“Before 2015, the budget of the
national assembly was N150 billion for several years. It was cut down to N120bn
in 2015 and further down to N115bn in 2016. In 2017, the budget was N125bn and
N139.5bn in 2018. This means that the budget of the national assembly is still
far below the N150bn in the years before 2015.
“While we commend Mr. President
for a good working relationship, we also wish to state that we have a job to
do, which requires adequate funding as well. The additional costs and projects
to the budget were done in good faith for the sole purpose of improving the
lives of Nigerians.
“Finally, we welcome the proposal
by Mr. President to forward a supplementary budget to the national assembly to
address other areas of pressing demands and commend the President and the
entire executive arm for a cordial working relationship.”
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