The Nation Newspaper

Tag: budget

  • Probe begins as police get three versions of budget

    Probe begins as police get three versions of budget

    Jibrin, panel in two-hour session

    The police yesterday retrieved three versions of the budget from ousted House of Representatives Appropriations Committee chairman Abdulmumin Jibrin as probe of his allegation of padding began.

    The Special Investigation Panel (SIP) has started sieving the documents to isolate the padded areas, it was learnt.

    Jibrin petitioned the police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-graft agencies, alleging the padding of Budget 2016 by Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun, Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Minority Leader Leo Ogor and nine others.

    He claimed that they inserted about 2000 projects worth N284 billion into the budget.

    Jibrin had a two-hour session with the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Amodu Ali-led SIP.

    Jibrin, who submitted more documents on the matter to the investigators, may appear before the panel again either today or tomorrow.

    Based on documents at its disposal, the panel may interact with other members of the appropriations committee, sources said.

    A source said: “The search for padded areas by the panel has started. As at Monday (yesterday), the panel was in receipt of three versions of the 2016 Budget.

    “These versions are the original copy laid before the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari, the version  passed by the National Assembly but rejected by the President due to omission of some key projects, such as the N60billion Calabar-Lagos rail project; and the harmonised copy.

    “With the retrieval of these budget versions, detectives have started identifying padded areas by the House members.

    “After locating these padded areas, the SIP will be able to determine the focus of interrogation and the list of those to be questioned alongside the 13 already implicated by Jibrin.”

    Responding to a question, the source added: “The SIP may interact with all members of the House Committee on Appropriations and some chairmen of committees.

    “We are also monitoring every claim by members in the media to guide our investigation.”

    For the session with the SIP yesterday, Jibrin arrived at about noon and left around 2pm.

    “Jibrin brought additional documents to support his allegations. What he did was to support every allegation with proof and the sources where he got all the documents. He is trying to prove his case that the padding was criminal.

    “We have requested him for additional facts. So, Jibrin could be with us tomorrow (today) or Wednesday. We have told him additional things to bring as part of our preliminary investigation.

    “We will invite Dogara and the others after we are done with Jibrin, a source said

    he added: “As the investigation progresses, we will inform the public. This is an investigation that will stand the test of time.

    “ The nation should at the end of the day put an end to the culture of padding.  We will be fair to all who will appear before the SIP.”

     

    Last Friday during a visit to the Presidential Villa, Dogara said budget padding was not an offence.

    He said as a lawyer who has been in the legislature for years, he had never heard of where lawmakers were accused of padding the budget.

    His position drew the ire of many on social media who criticised him for his “insensitivity in these hard times”.

    Jibrin also took  him to the cleaners, arguing that “budget padding is an offence”.

     

  • Buhari to probe budget padding, constituency projects

    Buhari to probe budget padding, constituency projects

    •Jibrin alleges plot to assassinate him

    The Federal Government reacted yesterday to the budget padding row in the House of Representatives, promising to probe the allegation and other related cases over the years.

    Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mallam Abubakar Malami (SAN) said the government would “take action” based on the probe outcome.

    This indicates that the probe may be extended to the administrations of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Malami also said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would probe executive and legislative conspiracy on constituency projects.

    But former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Abdulmumin Jibrin yesterday lashed out at Speaker Yakubu Dogara for saying that padding is not an offence.

    Malami, who spoke with our correspondent, said the government’s action on padding would lead to the blocking of fraudulent leakages.

    He said: “We will investigate the executive and legislative conspiracy as it relates to constituency projects with a view to measuring the art of execution of the padded projects over the years

    “In so doing, we will learn our lessons in the budget and its implementation as a law with the aim to prosecute infractions and block leakages inherent in the padding process.

    “Action must naturally be taken in the interest of the nation for efficient utilisation of our commonwealth and blocking of fraudulent leakages.”

    There were also indications yesterday that the government may resist pressure to dump the investigation of Jibrin’s petition against Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun, Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Minority Leader Leo Ogor others for the alleged padding.

    It was gathered that some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are pushing for a political solution to the matter but a government source said: “We are not aware of any political solution to the ongoing investigation of the padding of the 2016 Budget by the police.

    “Some people no doubt are seeking political solution to the padding palaver but I think the government will want the law to take its course.

    “The way the Speaker spoke at the Presidential Villa on Friday suggested that a  political compromise was in the offing . But President Buhari made no commitment at all.”

    The Special Investigation Panel (SIP) of the Police will today interact with Jibrin.

    The lawmaker is expected to present more documents to the panel and begin his interaction with the five-man team.

    A source said: “The panel has linked up with Jibrin, we are hopeful of a robust session with him on Monday (today).”

    But Jibrin on his Tweeter handle last night said only 13 members of the House are on trial for padding, not all the 360 members.

    He said: “It has once again become necessary for me to make some statements, clarifications and further revelations.

    “As you are aware, my party(APC) has intervened in the current crisis following allegations of corruption, embezzlement and abuse of office leveled against Speaker Yakubu Dogara, three principal officers and nine other members of which none had responded to any.

    “As I said earlier, it is only the 13 members of the House that are on trial, not the House of Representatives as an institution.

    “Surprisingly, they have resorted to using every tactics to narrow the allegations to only issue of padding, which in itself is a grievous offence, ignoring tens of other criminal allegations in my petition to the anti-corruption agencies.

    “In doing so, they mischievously expanded the scope of the culpability to give an impression that the entire House, the Senate and even the Executive arm of government and some individuals outside the National Assembly are on trial.

    “This is a wicked attempt to drag many institutions and individuals into the matter to neutralise the issue, spread fear and sell dummy that the entire country will go down if this matter is dealt with decisively, the biggest blackmail on the entire country I have ever seen.

    “Nigerians should know that the whole agenda of this blackmail is  being coordinated by  two serving governors and three former members. I will give their names in due course. They have been running from pillar to post and I keep wondering what really are they afraid of.

    “The meeting with the party went very well and in all honesty, they were very objective and showed understanding.

    “I told the party that I will be part of any peaceful resolution except the criminal allegations I have raised against Dogara and 12 others.

    “On that, I told the party there is no going back and further informed them that more revelations will be made once investigation commences.”

    Alleging that there is a plan to assassinate him, Jibrin said: “I believe Speaker Dogara, the 12 others and some vested interest within and outside the House want to kill me. I no longer feel safe. I have carefully followed their desperation to suppress what will go down in history as the biggest corruption case in Nigeria.

    “I have prepared myself for any eventuality. I have spoken to my mum and dad extensively during the weekend. I have prepared my family. I have handed over a handwritten note and documents to a popular Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), a man of integrity and other persons that I believe will lay it bare even if they succeed in killing me.

    After three days of careful observation and receiving information from very patriotic Nigerians, I discovered a grand plan by the group of two governors and three former (House) members designed to provide soft-landing for Dogara and 12 others, give them time to clean up the mess on their desk, destroy whatever evidence in their possession and reach, spread money across members to buy signature of vote of confidence.

    “So the Speaker is saying the nine roads he inserted into the budget which he fraudulently sandwiched into four roads and inserted billions into that without any design or costing is not an offence? Or the water project he hijacked from the budget and took to his farm is not an offence? Or moving 10 solar boreholes to a place that probably requires just two is not an offence?”

    Dogara’s spokesman Hassan Turaki declined comment when contacted last night.

  • Budget blues

    T appears the row over the budget will never end. Right from the outset, the budget has been dogged by controversy. There was no stage of the document that did not have its own drama. Whether at the compilation, preparation, appropriation, documentation or signing stage, it was one drama after the other. It is as if we have never seen a budget go through the mill since the return to democracy in 1999. Yet, between then and now, 15 budgets have been presented to the National Assembly by a sitting president.

    Budget 2016 seems to have a life and a story of its own. These two elements derive from the persona of the person of the president, who we can safely call the author of the budget. The budget bears the imprimatur of President Muhammadu Buhari. He may not have personally prepared the budget, but his influence over its preparation cannot be ruled out. Known as a man of integrity, this attribute would have been at the back of the minds of those who worked on the budget.

    In discharging this onerous task, top officials of the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) charged with this task must have been guided by the philosophy of the president that every kobo must be accounted for. To account for every kobo, there must be transparency and prudence in the compilation of the fiscal document, which will guide the nation’s spending during the year. Some of them tried to play games with the process by adding their own figures to some areas of the budget. It was a trick that they used in the past and got away with. But this time around, with the wind of change blowing across the country, it was not business as usual.

    The president caused the process to be double checked with the eyes of an elder and it was found that certain things just did not add up. Since then, the budget has been reeling from one case of padding to the other. Officials of MDAs started this padding, which from all indications did not start with the 2016 Budget. It is more than certain that our budgets since 1999 would have been tampered with one way or the other by these people, who know where to hide some cash and how to get it out when the time comes. A budget cabal, it seems, exists in every ministry, department and agency.

    This cabal knows that without the National Assembly, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to steal from the budget. So, it infiltrated the National Assembly, with which it has been working for the past 17 years to steal our money via appropriations. The chicken has come home to roost with what is playing out among leaders of the House of Representatives. The lower chamber’s debacle clearly shows that there is something intrinsically wrong with the way our budgets have been appropriated over the years. The lawmakers, who are supposed to be the representatives of the people, have turned budget appropriation into an avenue for stealing.

    Under the guise of making a case for projects in their constituencies, they appropriate funds under bogus heads and when the cash is released they, in connivance with top officials of MDAs, take the money and share. Abdulmumin Jibrin, until about two weeks ago, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, knows all the tricks deployed in this budget-for-project-scam. His committee worked on the 2016 Budget and from what he is saying today, the panel did not do a good job. Instead, it was more interested in serving the needs of members under the pretence of serving the people.

    Members were using their influence to get money appropriated for fictitious projects, which cash will end up in their pockets. Jibrin, according to some members, was also into the game. He was said to have asked some of his colleagues to name projects for their constituencies which would be included in the budget. In some cases, he was said to have told his colleagues that he had put projects and appropriated money for them in the budget on their behalf. Just like that! Yes, just like that! Some played along with Jibrin, others allegedly raised the alarm, but nothing came out of it because Speaker Yakubu Dogara and Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun seemed to know what was going on.

    If they knew, as their colleagues are saying, why did the presiding officers keep quiet? Is it that they benefited from Jibrin’s ‘generosity’, that is if we can call what he did generous? We would not have heard of this matter if Jibrin had not been removed as the appropriations committee chairman. His removal, which he prefers to call resignation, triggered the budget padding scandal in the House. What annoyed him, he said, was the statement credited to Dogara who he supported with all he had for the speakership last year. He said Dogara painted him black, pointing out that the speaker’s statement suggested that he abused his position as committee chairman. Didn’t he?

    Known to be a fighter with the way he mounted the Dogara-for-speaker campaign, which no doubt fetched him the committee job, Jibrin is deploying the same arsenal and zeal in fighting the speaker over this budget padding matter. The speaker, Lasun, Chief Whip Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor, among others, he alleged, wanted to appropriate to themselves N40 billion out of the N100 billion earmarked for the 360-member House. In all, he said the over N6 trillion budget was padded with N284 billion. Dogara has described his estranged friend as a blackmailer and asked him to withdraw the allegation or face legal action.

    Jibrin has said he would not withdraw the claim, daring the speaker to go to court. Before they go to court, Nigerians will be interested in knowing whether or not both of them benefited from the padding of the budget. Reason: It is now certain that some figures, which should not be there, found their way into the budget despite all the president’s efforts to ensure that that did not happen. Our lawmakers are just too much. See how they beat the president in his anti-graft war. Right under his nose, they smuggled their own figures into the budget and he signed it without knowing. I do not know what could be worse than using the president to perfect what could be called stealing from the budget.

    As if the president knew. Little wonder, he initially refused to sign the budget until the lawmakers removed some of the padded figures. How do we remove the remaining padded figures from the budget and bring those responsible to justice? This should be an urgent task for the law enforcement agencies.

  • Reps step up dirty fight over Budget 2016 scandal

    Reps step up dirty fight over Budget 2016 scandal

    ‘Members’ revolt forced Jibrin’s sack’

    Lawmaker indicts House leadership

    House Speaker Yakubu Dogara dropped former Appropriation Committee chair  Abdulmumin Jibrin following pressure from members, it was learnt at the weekend.

    Members asked Dogara to choose between them and Jibrin in the aftermath of the padding of the 2016 budget, The Nation gathered.

    The Speaker sensationally removed Jibrin last week but the lawmaker lashed out at Dogara and three other principal officers, saying they should resign because, according to him, they prevailed on him to pad the budget in their favour, but he refused to.

    It was also learnt that members were angry that they were all sidelined by Jibrin and his counterpart in the Senate, Sen. Danjuma Goje.

    There were strong indications last night  that the House may suspend Jibrin when it resumes in September.

    According to a principal officer, who pleaded not to be named because he is not permitted to talk to the media, most members of the House were disappointed over the padding of the budget.

    The source said: “You can ask any member of the House, the padding of the budget created an image crisis for the National Assembly, especially the House.

    “Members were angry and, at a point, they asked Dogara to choose between them and Jibrin. The Speaker’s hands were tied but he was, however, tactical in not removing Jibrin immediately after the Appropriation Bill was passed into law.

    “We kept on mounting pressure on him to remove Jibrin or else he will pay for it.

    “It became unbearable when Jibrin was allegedly summoning heads of MDAs to his house on the budget. Members also resorted to going cap in hand to Jibrin for inclusion of some projects in the budget.

    “When President Muhammadu Buhari returned the budget and the National Assembly was asked to review the padded areas, the Speaker called Jibrin for an update. But in what appeared a snub, he told Dogara: ‘Will you come down to my house to see what we are doing?’ He disrespected the Speaker who appointed him into office.”

    Responding to a question, the source added: “Certainly, Jibrin will go on suspension for his affront against the leadership of the House. We won’t tolerate indiscipline.”

    Another ranking member said Jibrin ran into trouble following an agreement between the Presidency and the National Assembly to jack up the Army and the Air Force estimates by N15billion.

    The source said: “There were claiming for credit for the increase in the votes for the Army and the Air Force. Besides, members of the Appropriation Committee were shocked that there was subtle demand for gratification by a member.”

    “The Committee was uncoordinated because of Jibrin’s attitude. In fact, most members of the committee had little input into the budget,” the source said, adding:

    “ The Executive arm was also tired of Jibrin’s misdemeanour. At a point, some members of the Executive were always asking Dogara: ‘when will you remove that boy? Won’t there be sanctions from the House for those involved in budget padding?’ We got to this sorry state.”

    A second term House member said: “We warned the Speaker against appointing Jibrin as the chairman of the Appropriation Committee because when he headed the Committee on Finance, his action made ex-Speaker Aminu Tambuwal to weep one day over a budgetary matter. This incident happened in the 7th National Assembly.

    “Ex-Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso prevailed on the former Speaker not to suspend Jibrin. Tambuwal’s brother, Kwamkwaso’s bosom friend and the ex-governor asked his friend to beg the ex-Speaker to forgive Jibrin.

    “All these people are alive; you can crosscheck these facts.

  • ‘Speaker backs padding of budget in secret location’

    ‘Speaker backs padding of budget in secret location’

    Former House of Representatives Appropriation Committee chairman  Abdulmumin Jibrin, has alleged that the padding of the 2016 budget with N40 billion was done at a secret location with the backing of Speaker Yakubu Dogara and three principal officers.

    Jibrin, who gave more details on the development in a statement last night, said the allegation of padding was not against the entire members of the House but the four principal officers.

    Apart from the Speaker, he listed the other principal officers as Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun, House Whip Alhassan  Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor.

    All of them have washed their hands off the matter, saying Jubrin is muck raking after putting himself in trouble.

    But Jubrin insists the principal officers were involved and that he needed his colleagues to listen to his side of the story and set up a panel to probe the matter.

    Jibrin, who said he had to bear the bashing arising from the padding, said 10 Committee chairmen were also involved in injecting N284b into the budget with 2000 fictitious projects.

    He said unknown his colleagues, his inability to intimate the entire House about the Budget matter was well planned and executed by Dogara and the others.

    He said: “During the budget period, when they discovered that I was not the kind of a person they could use to perpetrate their illegality, Mr. Speaker and the three other principal officers took away the entire Appropriation Committee secretariat to a secret location where all sort of insertions were made into the budget.

    “The blackmail has always been, Abdul people will laugh at you if anything goes wrong between you and Dogara because of the lead role you played and the many toes you stepped on to get him elected.

    “It’s been a painful experience. Again the secretariat was taken away from me on Speaker Dogara’s instruction for the second time to a location I don’t know and all sort of insertions into the budgets were made and returned to me for signature.

    “I said over my dead body! It was a massive crisis behind the scene until the early morning of the Friday that Mr President assented the budget.

    “It was Sen Danjuma Goje that brokered a compromise that since the Deputy Speaker leads the Harmonisation Committee, he should also sign such that the Harmonisation Committee will share responsibility with us.

    “Senator Goje pleaded with me so hard all night and later shouted heavily on me, reminding me that he is not talking to me as a Senator but as a father. I cried heavily all night.

    “When the budget Harmonisation Committee headed by Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun gave out 80 per cent concession across board to the executive demands during the harmonisation negotiation, it was agreed that the remaining 20 per cent should go to the entire NASS.

    “The Deputy Speaker excused himself that he wanted to go and consult with Mr. Speaker. He came back after few hours and in an unprecedented display of greed, presented to me a hand written note distributing the remaining 20 per cent to only principal officers.

    “70 per cent of the 20 per cent was reserved for Mr. Speaker and himself while the remaining 30 per cent of the 20 per cent goes to other principal officers.

    “I am sure he will recognise the handwriting when he sees it. My colleagues didn’t know all of these.

    “Mr Speaker also directed me to create what I advised him will be a controversial line item under Service Wide Vote to introduce about N20 billion project using the name of NASS.

    “He directed me to see a highly-placed PDP politician, which I did and collected the documents. I advised him repeatedly against it but he kept pressuring me until I bluntly told him I will not!

    “When the Appropriation Committee received all the budget reports from standing committees, an analysis was conducted. We discovered that about 10 only out of the 96 Standing Committees of the House introduced about 2,000 (two thousand) projects without the knowledge of their committee members amounting to about N284, 000, 000, 000 ( Two hundred and eighty four billion).

    “I was alarmed. But I was cautious because at our pre-budget meeting with the committee chairmen, I was clearly warned not to touch their budgets. I reported the matter to the speaker. He did nothing about it obviously because he was working behind the scene with the committee chairmen.

    “That was the beginning of the whole budget problem from the side of House and the whole exercise had to go through several versions before it was passed.

    “So, is it Abdul that introduced 2000 projects into budget worth N284billion? But I quietly bore the pain and abuses from all over the country and continued to defend the committee’s inputs as a show of loyalty to the institution I represent which I so much love and still have many great minds in there.

    “Apart from Chairman Agriculture Hon Mongunu who owned up and explained his inputs at the only executive session I was allowed to attend, the other chairmen who loaded the budget kept quiet and watched me bashed from every angle by angry Nigerians.”

    Jibrin also defended himself when accused of keeping silence on the matter before things went sour among the principal actors, saying: “Many members of the House and Nigerians will be shocked to know that there has never been good times between myself and Speaker Dogara.

    “It took few weeks after his election as Speaker for me to realise I never really knew him well. I was hasty to judge him by his innocent looking personality.

    “When you see a house you sacrificed everything to build is falling apart and the driver believes he is firmly in charge because he has eight votes advantage, you are left with no choice than to tie your seat belt for obvious eventuality. I must admit I made an error of judgement.

    “I don’t know to whom and from where I will start apologising for not heeding to wise counsel. There is nothing I am saying now that I have not discussed or warned Speaker Dogara on the few occasions that I sought and got private audience with him.

  • SERAP seeks probe of alleged N40b budget padding

    SERAP seeks probe of alleged N40b budget padding

    The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called for an independent probe into the alleged N40 billion 2016 budget padding by the National Assembly.

    SERAP’s Executive Director Mr Adetokunbo Mumuni yesterday, in a statement, urged Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara to allow the anti-graft agencies probe allegations of budget padding by its leadership.

    He advised the Speaker to allow the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the allegation.

    The executive director said the leadership of the House was alleged to have padded the 2016 budget by N40 billion.

    “SERAP’s call follows allegations by the last Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmunin Jibrin, that the Speaker and three other principal officers attempted to approve N40 billion of N100 billion approved for constituency projects.

    “Jibrin said he has also been victimised for refusing to support immunity for officers.

    “Given the seriousness and gravity of the allegations against the House leadership, any investigation by the House would not be enough to meet the threshold of an effective, transparent and independent investigation.

    “Nigerians will not have confidence in the House investigating itself.

    “The Speaker must move swiftly to refer the allegations to EFCC and ICPC to allow for a swift, transparent, effective and independent investigation to contain the damage.

    “There must be full accountability for any leader or member found to be responsible.

    “These allegations raise questions about the need for a greater level of transparency and accountability in the National Assembly, such as telling Nigerians salaries and allowances of senators and members of the House.

    “Public auditing of spending by the National Assembly and several reports on allegations of corruption that have been investigated by the National Assembly remain shrouded in secrecy and skewed to favour suspected corrupt officers,” Mumuni said.

    Besides, he enjoined the House leadership to publicly commit that it would not promote constitutional amendments on immunity for its principal officers.

    According to him, no public interest would be served  if it sought to grant its principal officers immunity not contemplated by framers of the 1999 Constitution.

    “It is important the National Assembly conducts itself in the knowledge that its role is a public one.

    “Appearances of propriety can be as important as actual conflicts of interest in establishing what is acceptable behaviour,” he emphasised.

    Mumuni urged Dogara to propose a bill on members’ integrity, saying this will restore public confidence in the National Assembly, check corruption and protect the leadership from criticism.

  • Lagos targets N50b IGR, N1tr budget by 2018

    The Lagos State government yesterday said it would reduce dependence on federal allocation and increase its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to N30 billion monthly next year and N50 billion monthly in 2018.

    It is also aiming at a yearly budget of N1 trillion by 2018.

    These were part of resolutions after a four-day retreat for the State Executive Council, Body of Permanent Secretaries and heads of government agencies and parastatals at the VIP Chalets in Badagry, with the theme: “Reflect, Reappraise, Restrategise: Raising the Bar of Governance.”

    According to the government, efforts are being made to scale up and run efficient revenue collection through the convergence of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies’ (MDAs) operations and utilisation of cutting-edge technology.

    In a communiqué after the retreat, read by Commissioner for Information and Strategy Steve Ayorinde; Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget Akinyemi Ashade and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Fola Adeyemi, the government said participants deliberated on the six pillars of Lagos State Development Plan (LSDP).

    They are infrastructural development, sustainable environment, finance, economic development, social development as well as security and governance.

    On the budget plan, Ashade said although the target was ambitious, appropriate measures were being adopted to achieve the plan.

    The state’s 2016 budget is N662.588 billion – the highest since 1999.

    Ashade said: “Yes, it is ambitious. It requires thinking and what we are going to do differently is to ensure we use technology to drive it in terms of automation and collection. What we are also going to ensure is that the reform around consumption taxes is taken to another level. The land administration system, the EGIS, also will support this initiative and we believe once we are through with automation of the processes, the reform in the consumption tax administration and blocking loopholes, we believe we will have the right funding to finance these plans. We will not forget one critical fact, which is that all is about Public-Private-Partnership because we are also going to use that to drive implementation of our plan,” Ashade said.

    Ayorinde said participants reaffirmed the administration’s vision to make life better and meaningful as well as recognising the government’s role as enabler and resolved to create the enabling environment to promote and advance the wellbeing of Lagosians.

    He said participants agreed to achieve a 100 per cent budget performance, with a 58 per cent to 42 per cent ratio for capital and recurrent expenditure.

    The commissioner added that the MDAs not yet integrated into the Treasury Single Account (TSA) will be brought in before the end of this quarter.

    On tourism, Ayorinde said participants acknowledged its imperative and the need to invest more in the sector with emphasis on improving technological capacity of the Lottery Board to create jobs and increase revenue generation.

    Other key conclusions at the retreat, Ayorinde said, include the need to improve on the performance of Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) in the production of water and collection of water tariff as well as encouraging private sector investment in production and supply of portable water, mapping out strategies towards food security, especially by increasing rice production to reduce dependence on food importation within the next three years.

  • Lack of CEOs stalls power agencies’ budget

    Federal Government parastatals and agencies without substantive Chief Executive Officers  cannot access the 2016 budget, it was learnt yesterday .

    A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the development has affected the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET)  that are are operating without substantive CEOs.

    Without the budget, the source said, it would be impossible to pay contractors that need money to implement the projects.

    The Nation learnt that the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola last month directed Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to prepare their schedules for the payment of their contractors.

    The source said: “The budgets of some MDAs that do not have substantive CEOs have not been released. Without the budget, you cannot make the contractors to move to site because once there is no money, the contractors will be reluctant to move. But once they know that there is money, it gingers them to work.

    However, Fashola last month asked MDAs to prepare schedules for payments of contractors.

    One  REA contractor lamented that there is an outstanding debt of N7billion owed to the contractors but the government approved only N1.2billion for the debt in this year’s budget.

    The contractor said: “We have an outstanding payment of about N7 billion but what they put in the current budget is N1.2 billion. Up till now we have not seen it. They said the budget has been realised but nothing has dropped into the account.”

    He said owing to the fact that there is no substantive CEO in  REA, there is also a limit to the action that could be taken as there is currently no board, stressing that some executive decisions are now referred to the Minister and Permanent Secretary.

    “REA has no board and there is a limit to the executive power of the acting Managing Director of the agency so he still waits for the Minister or Permanent Secretary to take such decisions,“ the cource said.

  • Ex-UI VC urges Fed Govt to include research funds in budget

    A former  Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan (UI), Prof Olufemi Bamiro, has urged the Federal Government  to make provisions for research funds in appropriation bills.

    His position was shared by a university don Prof Layi Fagbenle  at the book lunch to celebrate the 81st birthday of Prof Babajide Lucas.

    The book was entitled: “Renewable Natural Resoruces Engineering: Essays in honour of Canon Prof Babajide Lucas”.

    Bamiro said:  “This is a country that has depended so much on oil,  which has become traditional energy, but surely we can see now the way the world is going, everybody is looking towards renewable energy. We have to look into the direction of solar energy supply. In Nigeria, we still need to be serious in our energy drive because the world  is moving away from oil and gas to the renewable and the non- renewable, which must be utilised.”

    Fagbenle  said: “ When nations are focused on research result, they will get developed and many problems will be solved. I know what my student go through before they can be able to finish their research work due to funding.”

    The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof Idowu Olayinka, who was represented by the Deputy VC Administration, Prof Emilolorun Ayilari, described Lucas as a disciplinarian and educationist.

  • FCTA prioritises infrastructure in budget

    Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Administration has proposed to spend N241, 467,231,031 this fiscal year for its capital and recurrent expenditures.

    FCT Minister Malam Muhammad Bello made this known during the defence of the 2016 FCT Statutory budget before the Senate Committee on FCT at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja.

    The minister said of the N241,467,231,031 proposed, N149,056,610,051 which represents 61.73 percent goes to capital expenditure.

    Bello said personnel cost is N52, 371,352,360 which also represents 21.69 percent of the total expenditure.

    According to him, the overhead is the least with N40, 039,268,620 out of the N241, 467,231,031 which is 16.58 percent.

    While saying that this year’s budget is a departure from the previous ones because of the importance his administration attaches to infrastructural development of the entire Federal Capital Territory, the minister disclosed that N2,400,000,000 has been set aside for debt servicing.

    In a statement issued by the Deputy Director/Chief Press Secretary, Muhammad Sule, the minister assured that attention would mostly be given to on-going projects this fiscal year to fast track solid development of the Federal Capital Territory.

    Bello further assured that the cleanliness of Abuja remains a top priority of his administration and that was why there was a complete change of leadership at the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) which is now being assisted with an enforcement team of 200 security personnel drawn from the Nigeria Police Force and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps led by a retired Squadron Leader.

    The minister emphasised that significant activities would be noticed in that area because cleanliness has no alternative.

    In his opening remarks, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Dino Malaye promised that his Committee will work assiduously to pass the Appropriation Bill into law.

    The FCT Permanent Secretary, Dr. Babatope Ajakaiye, Acting Secretaries of Mandate Secretariats, Directors as well as other top officials of the FCT Administration accompanied the FCT Minister to the Budget Defence.