The Nation Newspaper

Tag: budget

  • Ministry accuses NASS of inflating 2013 budget

    Ministry accuses NASS of inflating 2013 budget

    THE year 2013 may be a turbulent year between the National Assembly and the executive arm, as some officials of the Federal Ministry of Finance have accused the National Assembly of jacking up the budget figures.

    It was reliably learnt that the N150 billion budgeted for National Assembly in the budget is causing ripples among officials who prepared the budget. One sour point in the budget is an item in the Senate President’s office, which the Federal Ministry of Finance through the budget office had pegged at N300 million but which the legislators had inflated to over N1 billion.

    An official of the ministry of Finance familiar with the preparation of the budget told The Nation that “it was the opinion of the budget office that the said project (item) cannot be completed within the one year cycle of 2013 so N300 million was budgeted for the item. However, the National Assembly jacked up the figure to over N1 billion without any explanation.”

    Another official told The Nation that the executive caved in to the National Assembly because they “need the National Assembly to pass the annual budgets, the executive cannot pass the budget, so we have to focus on that and overlook certain things.”

    Three years ago, he said: “The National Assembly made its budgetary allocation a first line charge to cocoon it from making public the details of its budgetary allocations.”

    The decision to make the National Assembly budget a first line, he said, “is one political decision against transparency because they used their powers to preclude themselves from rendering accounts of their annual budgetary allocations.”

    This is the third year straight that the National Assembly has received N150 billion as its annual budgetary allocation (a 200 per cent increase from its previous allocations) and it has never made public what it spends the money on.

    When contacted, one of the officers of the National Assembly, who refused to be named, said: “The budget of the National Assembly and its details are the functions of the National Assembly administration and not that of the legislators directly.”

    He said the details of the National Assembly budget are with the ministry of Finance, but when reminded that the budget is a first line charge and only the National Assembly can make it public, he denied knowledge of the budgetary processes of the National Assembly.

    Next year, N971,784,000,000 will be expended on first line charges, N380,020,000,000 for statutory transfers made up of N67 billion to the National Judicial Council; N57,424,000,000 to the Niger Delta Development Commission; N72,246,000,000 to the Universal Basic Education; N150 billion to the National Assembly; N32 billion to INEC and N1.35 billion to the National Human Rights Commission.

    The balance of N591,764,000,000 is to be spent on debt servicing in 2013 with N543,376,000,000 earmarked for domestic debts servicing and N48,388,000,000 for foreign debts servicing.

    Some agencies that report directly to the executive are also guilty of not making their annual budgetary allocations public. These include the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and over 20 other agencies.

    The practice of keeping agency budgets secret has been a source of running controversy over the years with all those involved ignoring the call for transparency and accountability in the way they allocations are spent and holding to old practices of non disclosure.

     

  • President’s aide seeks monitoring of education budget

    Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Youth and Students’ Affairs Jude Imagwe, at the weekend in Benin, called on Nigerians and stakeholders to ensure the proper monitoring and implementation of the N426.53 billion vote to education in the 2013 budget appropriation.

    Imagwe, who spoke to journalists in Benin, Edo State capital, during a reception in his honour, praised the President’s commitment to transforming the sector.

    He also expressed government’s determination in partnering with the private sector in the provision of hostel accommodation for students on campuses, this he said would forestall the incessant killing of Nigerian students.

    According to him, “I want to commend the President for giving priority to education in his 2013 budget presentation last week to the joint session of the National Assembly and Nigerians. It is now the responsibility of all to ensure that the money is properly utilised for the purpose it was meant for.”

    Expressing concern over the insecurity of students following the Mubi killing in Adamawa and the mob action of four University of PortHarcourt undergraduates, he said the private sector should be encouraged to build hostels on a build and hire basis for students.

    “Students must be accommodated within university campuses as part of measures of preventing them from further attacks. The killing of students in Mubi and the Aluu four in Rivers State all happened outside campuses. If students are sheltered within their institutions, the incidences may not have taken place.”

  • 2013 budget stirs House, Executive face-off

    2013 budget stirs House, Executive face-off

    The battle line seems drawn as Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Abdulmumin Jubrin challenges Finance Minister Okonjo-Iwaela and Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN) Governor  Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to public debate. Jubrin was the Chairman, Joint Committees of the Legislative Budget and Research of National Planning and Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt that considered the 2013-2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP). Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi report.

     

    The Legislative Budget & Research Committee of the House of Representatives is the engine room for the National Assembly’s Budget and Research Office (NABRO). For the first time since the return of democracy in 1999, the office actually did an analysis of the budget (in this case, the 2013-2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework submitted by President Goodluck Jonathan) as required in the Fiscal Responsibilities Act, 2007. The committee in conjunction with the House committees on Finance, National Planning & Economic Development and Aids, Loans & Debt Management , in its report on the MTEF, recommended that the benchmark be increased from $75 to $80 per barrel of crude oil. This has been a source of conflict between the House and the Executive.

    Indication that the battle between the House and the Executive on the 2013 budget may have just have begun, emerged when the Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Dr. Abdulmumin Jubrin challenged the Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Governor of Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to a public debate on the feasibility or otherwise of the $80 benchmark for the 2013 budget.

    According to the lawmaker, there seems to be more to it than meet the eye concerning the stiff opposition from the Executive to the slight increment of $5 to the proposed $75 . He said the economic management team of President Goodluck Jonathan must, therefore, be courageous enough to prove beyond doubt why the $80 benchmark should be discarded. Jubrin noted that the only way to convince Nigerians is for both parties (House of Representatives and the Executive) to engage in a public debate for Nigerians to have the benefit of merits and demerits of the contending issue.

    Besides, he posited that the Executive must be able to disprove 2013 forecast for international oil price at between $100to $120. According to him, key international forecast agencies, like the Energy Information Agency, the Barclays, the Credit Swiss, the Dutch Bank and the City Group put their projections at between $ 120 and $100 while the average of all their forecast was pegged at between $100 and $105.

    He reiterated Speaker Aminu Tambuwal’s emphatic declaration that the 2013 budget would be anchored on $80 bench mark. Jubrin, however, expressed confidence that the Executive would have no better argument against the House’s position. In his words: “They will not have any superior argument, mark me and if they can, the Executive that I know, would have responded the first time we started talking. They have nothing superior to tell Nigerians than this point we have given. This is a pro-people analysis and position and they don’t have anything to say other than this. I am challenging them to a public debate, the Minister of Finance, the Governor of Central Bank, the DG of Budget Office and others involved in drawing up the document. Let us all face Nigerians a put our facts before them”.

    To buttress his argument on the defects inherent in the budget proposal of $75 benchmark by the Executive, the lawmaker regretted that those saddled with the management of the economy seemed to be incompetent and unwilling to consult widely in the process of preparing the document.

    “A very important factor that we discovered and which is quite disgraceful is that the position of MTEF is at variance with the position of most of these MDAs. Most of these agencies don’t even know the content of MTEF. We were the ones that gave them copies of the MTEF. So, it is convenient for us to draw conclusion that the MTEF is just a product of one to three people that are saddled with the management of our economy. There wasn’t wide consultation, it is not a national consultation but just a product of few people that believe that they can sit and write policies for this country and write MTEF for this country and write the budget of this country, which is why I said it without mincing my words,” he said.

    The lawmaker also urged Nigerians to be wise to the antics of the Executive that would always want to present one aspect of an issue rather than avail the people the opportunity of all aspects to the issue. Contrary to the Executive’s claims that savings, among other parameters, would be badly affected if the benchmark was jerked up to $80, Jubrin said the Executive has not been forthcoming on the true analysis of the situation. While he stressed that the lawmakers were not against savings, he regretted that the country’s economic managers have not been fair to Nigerians through unreasonable savings. He said, “You know that crude is going for about $110 as it is, if we peg the benchmark at $75, for instance, if the international price of crude as at today is $100 and we peg the benchmark at $75, it means that for every barrel of crude that you sell, $75 will go into financing of the budget and extra $25 should go into savings because this savings is the excess crude account and the Sovereign Wealth Fund. So what we are saying is that we are increasing the benchmark to $80 because we are convinced, after our analysis, that it is safe for us to increase it by $5. The implication of this is that rather than save $25, you will now have $20 to save. All we are taking away from them is just $5 out of the excess to service our budget deficit. So why are they resistant to it? Are we throwing the money in the river or are we taking it to go and share for our people in the villages? No, we are using it to help the economy; rather than taking it and dumping it in that place like European and American banks at a giveaway interest at the expense of the country, we are saying they should take part of it and invest it today which is the bone of contention”.

    Another loophole which the Jubrin picked in the budget proposal is the bloated recurrent expenditure which he said the government has not been able address. He expressed disappointment that despite all the noise over cutting the cost of running government, the Executive has not been able to reduce recurrent expenditure to an appreciable level. “These are part of the problems that we addressed during the MTEF. We had expected that in the MTEF because it is a medium term plan, so it is for 2013 – 2015, we will receive a systematic and clear-cut strategy to reduce recurrent expenditure drastically but it is not contained in the MTEF. I am so disappointed in the Minister of Finance because we made recommendation about that in the earlier MTEF.

    “I had thought that one area where she would have shown her competence is to be able to drastically reduce recurrent expenditure and if you ask them how they intend to reduce it, they will not give you figure but percentage. They are taking advantage of Nigerians because a lot of people are not enlightened about these things. Now, what they are saying is that they have reduced the recurrent expenditure by 3%. Why are they scared of converting it to monetary value? Let people understand from a real perspective of the budget provisions. The implication of this is that they want to continue to promote recklessness in spending and that shows how incompetent they are”,

    Jubrin also faulted the claims of the Executive that the $5 increment would put pressure on exchange rate and inflation. He said “I told all the agencies that came during our engagement during the MTEF deliberations to quantify the impact that a $5 will have on our exchange rate and on inflation; they have not been able to do that. We have also asked them if they have problem with this increment just for the singular reason of reducing the deficit and consequently reducing government domestic borrowing to create space for the private sector but they have not responded. The final reason they always give which is very important is that it will make more money available for the State and Local Government which they will mismanage because they believe that every Nigerian is corrupt and that they are the only people who are credible. I am not holding brief for State Governors but I think it is an insult to all State Governors that being against $5 was because it means more money for State Governors to misuse. I am calling on the State Governors to listen to this and now respond to the Ministry of Finance and the Minister. When we talk this way, they say that we want to bring down the country, shut down the economy.

    Jubrin however advised the Finance Minister, Ngozi Oknojo-Iweala to resign her appointment if she cannot manage the economy with the $80 benchmark as the House would not shift ground on its decision. He said for the Minister to undermine the Appropriation Act when it becomes operational would amount to breaking the law. “The Minister of Finance would have to resign her position If she can not comply with the provisions of the Appropriation Act because that would amount to breaking the law. By the time the budget is passed, it becomes law that everybody must comply with. We are talking from the point of law because our position on the issue of bench mark would be backed by the law and if she cannot relate with it, it would be better for her to resign rather break the law”.

     

  • Reps, NDDC bicker over budget

    There is a serious disagreement on the  N250billion budget of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    The House of Representatives Committee on NDDC and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) are divided on some figures in the budget.

    Members of the committee, who had converged for the budget defence, stormed out of the closed door meeting yesterday.

    The NDDC came before the Committee to defend its 2012 budget which went through second reading last week.

    The Committee had earlier walked reporters out of the session and commenced covert deliberations on the budget.

    The NDDC, last week, told the committee that it needs an additional N1.3 trillion to satisfactorily fund ongoing capital projects in the region.

    Sources alleged that the meeting was to find ways of infusing additional funds into the budget of the commission, but the members of the Committee disagreed on certain figures.

    The Chairman of the Committee, Nicholas Mutu who has earlier promised to brief reporters, cancelled the briefing.

     

  • Budget bickering

    Budget bickering

    •This is no time for intransigence and grandstanding between President Jonathan and lawmakers

     

    President Goodluck Jonathan may have sought to inter the ghost of tardiness that had plagued previous budgets when on October 10, he presented the 2013 budget outlay to the National Assembly for early consideration and passage; but he seemed to have underrated the resolve of the National Assembly to deal with the other half of the budget equation – the question of non-implementation of budget.

    The issue, unfortunately, seems set to dog the consideration of the 2013 budget. Earlier in July, the House of Representatives threatened to serve impeachment notice to the President over his alleged failure to implement the 2012 budget. Three months after, the Senate has equally given hint of possible withholding of the passage of budget 2013 until the issue of 2012 budget implementation is settled.

    Speaking on the matter last week, Ahmed Maccido, the Senate committee chairman on appropriation contested the claim by the executive that it has implemented the budget appreciably when he disclosed that the figures collated from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation actually indicated that the 2012 budget “has not reached more than 30 percent implementation”.

    The Senate, he said “will not touch the budget again until such a time when we have finished our oversight functions”. The House report on its oversight is currently being awaited.

    Away from implementation, another sore point in the 2013 budget process is the issue of the benchmark price adopted in the computation of the revenue estimates. Whereas the executive branch projected $75 per barrel (the 2012 benchmark price was $72), the House settled for $80 and the Senate $78. Whereas the executive maintains that its benchmark price reflected pragmatism given the volatility in crude oil prices, the National Assembly argues with equal forcefulness that the higher benchmark was realistic; it says that the higher price made better sense, particularly for a budget with an in-built deficit of nearly N1.5 trillion.

    If it seems disappointing that the two arms of government could not reconcile the basis of the budget despite the so-called pre-budget consultations, more worrisome however is that the basis of their disagreement actually reflects little that could be described as substance.

    Instructively, the 2013 budget retains the profile which has recurrent expenditure retaining a whopping 68.7 percent and the capital component a paltry 31.3 percent – sadly in a nation said to hunger for infrastructure renewal.

    Between an all-knowing executive branch and a grandstanding National Assembly, where is the one to choose from? Where is the substance in the ritual of hair-splitting over a so-called benchmark price which may or may not be realisable? Is that really the problem with the budget?

    Does the budget pretend to address the challenge of inclusive growth, the need to create millions of jobs for the army of unemployed youths which have remained elusive in previous budget cycles? What happens should oil prices suddenly dip?

    Presently, the nation’s budget process is in a mess mainly because of indiscipline and corruption. Unfortunately, both the lawmakers and the executive appear to believe that it is possible to build the nation’s budget process on this foundation of filth.

    The National Assembly will do better to focus on curbing the wastes in government, particularly the countless holes in the bureaucracy through which public funds are siphoned. Better still, it will do well to help put in place the mechanisms to ensure that Nigerians get value for every kobo appropriated in the budget. Here, we are mindful of the fact that the problem with our budget isn’t so much about the quantum of money spent but the value delivered.

    For far too long, the National Assembly has tended to fight shy when issues come to cleaning the budget process. The current scrutiny of the status of Budget 2012 implementation offers the best chance to begin the process.

  • Senate: we won’t consider Budget 2013 details now

    Senate: we won’t consider Budget 2013 details now

    Bill Budget 2013 get an early passage at the National Assembly?

    This remained doubtful yesterday, despite the budget’s early presentation by President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The Senate has joined the House of Representatives to denounce the poor implementation of this year’s budget.

    Its Appropriation Committee Chair, Senator Ahmed Maccido, put the implementation level at a mere 30 per cent.

    Speaker Aminu Tambuwal had, during President Goodluck Jonathan’s budget presentation, said the discovery of the House is that Budget 2012 is poorly implemented.

    But Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and presidential aide Dr. Doyin Okupe have denied the claim.

    Yesterday, the Senate said it would not consider the details of the fiscal policy, until its standing committee concludes its oversight functions on Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

    The House, also yesterday, declared the excess Crude Account illegal and announced its plan to get it scrapped.

    It also vowed to review the recurrent expenditure in next year’s budget in favour of capital expenditure.

    President Jonathan presented a budget estimate of the N4.92 trillion to a joint session of the National Assembly on October 10.

    Maccido said: “I believe even the Executive would agree with the fact that the budget has not reached more than 30 per cent implementation. The figure was collated from documents given to us by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation. There were releases, there are cash-backings, there is the actual budget itself and, based on all these, that was where we got the 30 per cent budget implementation figure from.

    “So, based on those figures, we made our deductions and arrived at that figure. The onus rests on the Senate to verify that because, as it is now, we are going on oversight functions to the MDAs and not just sitting in minister’s office and bringing documents for us to look at. We will go out to the field to see what is happening.

    “If, for instance, N1 billion has been earmarked for a particular project, a road project for instance, we want to go to the site to see for ourselves the level of work that has been done on that particular road.

    “Is the work on that road commensurate with the N1 billion budgeted? If not, we will come back and report to the Senate that the road is not up to the amount earmarked for it.

    “We will make our own deductions and conclusions and pass them onto the Senate. From there, we will know what to do. As I said earlier, it is not a matter of agreeing with the House or the Executive, but actually, we have the same stand.

    “All we are going to do is to debate the budget estimates and after that, we will not touch the budget again, until such a time when we have finished with our oversight functions. These are issues we need to take up with the Executive this year.

    “As we go on, we make improvements on issues of our working on the budget, not just on gas. There are issues such as the way the Sovereign Wealth Fund and the Excess Crude Account are being managed. All these issues will be raised with the President this year.

    Maccido said the Senate was particularly interested in capital expenditure.

    The Senate is likely to begin the second reading of the 2013 budget today.

    House spokesman Zakari Mohammed expressed regret that patriotic moves by the House have always been misunderstood.

    He said Section 80 (1, 2, 3) is explicit on the control of public funds, adding: “It is a creation of the Constitution that all revenues acruing to the Federation should go to the Consolidated Account. It is in the constitution; we are not making it up.

    “It would not be wrong to say that the essence of the Excess Crude Account is let’s share the money because the states and local governments that shared from the account have not been able to justify the usage of the money in relation to what they used it for. “

    Mohammed said it had become expedient for Nigerians to critically view issues of contention between the legislators and the executive.

    “It is regrettable that for benchmarking, we are being blackmailed,” he said, adding:

    “If we talk about this, we will still be blackmailed, but we have got to let Nigerians see the reasons why we are taking these actions. We must all strive to strengthen our institutions because we cannot be here forever. Institutions must be empowered to function; it should not be about the person running the institution.

    “But because the money from the excess crude is kept enblock in one account, where some interests are being made, maybe some people’s ego are being massaged from it or somebody somewhere is making profit from that arrangement, they will not want it to die.”

    Besides, the spokesman reiterated the determination of the lawmakers not to be deterred in their efforts aimed at making governance impactful.

    “On our part, we remain focused and we will keep fighting it. I must add that there are a number of our colleagues that are bringing in motions and bills to amend the constitution. We are going to seize the opportunity of the ammendment of the costituation to take care of some of these grey areas.

    “This is because we have sharing this money for about 13 years now but what can we point at as achievement from the excess crude account. That is the issue and it is illegal because all monies supposed to go to the Consolidated Account”.

    Another area of possible clash with the executive, according to Mohammed, is the recurrent expenditure in the 2013 budget proposal, which is much higher than the capital expenditure.

    He said the House was determined to adjust the capital expenditure upward for it to have a meaningful impact on the lives of Nigerians.

    He said the House Spokesman will kick-start consultation on constitution amendment on November 8 from the 360 constituencies where interactive session would be held with Civil Society Organizations (CSO), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO), professionals, traders, youths and other stakeholders.

  • Budget wars

    Budget wars

    For many months before President Goodluck Jonathan finally read the 2013 budget estimates, the National Assembly had been squirming over what they described as poor implementation of the 2012 budget. The legislators became so angry that for a time it was believed they were unwilling to have the president present the budget. There were even parliamentary discussions suggesting the National Assembly would first undertake a tour of the country to assess how well the president implemented the outgoing budget, before he was given a hearing. Eventually, the budget was presented last week, but not without its dramatic moments, some of which were captured by the press. The president, it was reported, uncharacteristically and directly requested for copies of the scathing speeches made by the Senate President David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal on the federal government’s indefensible budgetary habits. A surprised and embarrassed Tambuwal was said to have demurred, but finally surrendered his copy to the president.

    In their remarks, Mark pledged to Jonathan and all Nigerians that the legislature would not “robotically pass the budget estimates as presented,” while Tambuwal groaned that the president had not impressed anyone in implementing the 2012 budget. These remarks have in turn triggered another firestorm. Heralding the storm was the veritable storm trooper himself, aka attack dog, Dr Doyin Okupe, a presidential assistant newly recruited and dying to prove himself and justify his wages. He berated both Mark and Tambuwal for nursing unrealistic expectations of the 2012 budget, and for speaking, according to him, indecorously to the president. In any case, he summed up patronisingly, the remarks were not necessary, for the president had presented a “masterly” budget.

    Had the cantankerous Okupe remembered that neither Mark nor Tambuwal suffer fools gladly, perhaps he would have been more restrained in waving a red rag to two bulls at the same time, with Tambuwal even more bullish than the average. Predictably, the two top legislators have taken up the challenge with alacrity and have thundered their own replies. Mark described Okupe as meddlesome, acerbic and dedicated to making enemies for the president rather than friends. It will be recalled that on an earlier incident, in which Okupe spoke defiantly to the Senate leadership, Mark had characterised the presidential assistant as someone who spoke before thinking. With his latest attack on the National Assembly leadership, that unflattering impression of Okupe will now naturally endure in the Senate. On his own, Tambuwal described Okupe as ignorant, uncouth, disrespectful and overzealous. That image of Okupe will not change in a million years in the House of Representatives.

    If Okupe’s manners grate on the nerves of the National Assembly leadership, it is probably music to the ears of his employers who recruited him to pep up the communication world in the presidency, a world that had threatened to mummify in airy intellectualism, somnolence and pacifism. Aah, that sanguine feeling; there is nothing like descending to the mire and becoming down-to-earth pugnacious. For the presidency, here at last was their Java man, the missing link whom archaeologists describe as Pithecanthropus erectus. If his employers are satisfied with his combativeness, who cares what anyone thinks?

    Among other issues, the real budget fight will be over the $80 oil benchmark proposed by the National Assembly, as against the $75 suggested by the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Her arguments are simple but apocalyptic. If $80 benchmark is used, she warns, it will fuel inflation, devalue the naira, lower savings, and reduce investments. She has not offered convincing proof how these scary scenarios will come about, or why it has to be $75 benchmark and not $70 or even $60. All she knows is that the wizards who drafted the budget used realistic economic model and standard technique common to commodity-dependent countries. So far, the legislators are unimpressed. More, they have threatened that the budget dispute would not be considered as a family affair. Read that to mean war – a war Tambuwal cheekily suggested should help the president to be a better man in delivering the dividends of democracy and implementing budget proposals.

     

     

  • ‘Senate’ll critically review 2013 Budget’

    Senator Gbenga Ashafa (Lagos East District) yesterday said Nigerians should expect a critical review of the 2013 Appropriation Bill by the Senate.

    Ashafa, who is the Vice-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Housing, Lands & Urban Development, said senators are concerned about how the bill would affect the life of the ordinary Nigerian.

    He said lawmakers have a duty to protect the interest of the masses, who elected them.

    Ashafa said the 73.8 per cent increase in capital supplementation in next year’s Appropriation Bill is better than this year’s Appropriation Act.

    He hailed the provision of N15 billion for job creation, N3 billion special intervention funds for women, N22 billion for police reforms, N20 billion reimbursement to states for the maintenance of federal roads and N3 billion for sports development.

    The senator was not happy with the decrease in the allocation of the Ministry of Lands and Housing.

    He said: “The appropriation for lands and housing has decreased by 48.4 per cent, while there are no provisions in the capital supplementation for housing, apart from some allocations towards 2010 outstanding liabilities.

    “This is extremely worrisome, since housing is a critical area that needs to be decisively addressed, as it is one of the basic needs of man.”

    Ashafa criticised the reduction in the allocation of the Ministry of Transportation by 45.83 per cent.

    He said: “It is time the government looks deeply at our transport sector. How do we complete our rail projects with these reductions?

    “Health was given 5.7 per cent and Education got 8.7 per cent of the budget, but the international benchmark recommends 15 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. These sectors have a direct impact on the masses and should be increased, just like the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

    “In view of the floods ravaging the country, the budget of the Environment Ministry should be increased, so that it can execute flood prevention projects.”

    Ashafa condemned the huge budgetary allocation to some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), which he said would not have direct impact on the common man.

    He said: “For example, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Special Duties have 49.96 per cent and 41.89 per cent increase compared to their votes in the 2012 Appropriation Act.”

     

    “As legislators, we will do our best to look at this budget on behalf of the electorate and ensure that they have a budget that affects them directly; this is our humble promise.”

     

  • Reps won’t rubberstamp 2013 budget –Tambuwal

    Reps won’t rubberstamp 2013 budget –Tambuwal

    • Denies disloyalty charge

    The office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives yesterday insisted that the National Assembly and not the executive arm, has the final say on the budget.

    In the latest of the broadsides exchanged by both sides since the Wednesday presentation of the 2013 budget proposals to the legislative arm by President Goodluck Jonathan, the Special Adviser on Media to Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, Mallam Imam Imam hoped that the President does not “share the overzealous and rather morbid views and sentiments of Dr. Doyin Okupe and some of his co-travellers in the President’s media office” on the power of the National Assembly on the budget.

    Dr. Okupe, the Presidential Special Adviser on Communication had, in a statement, dismissed the positions of Senate President David Mark and Speaker Tambuwal on the insistence of the Presidency that the federal legislators should pass the proposals the way they were presented as wrong.

    The two presiding officers immediately replied him as playing to the gallery and striving to justify his pay.

    But in an update yesterday, Imam said: “Since the presentation of the 2013 budget by President Goodluck Jonathan to the joint sitting of the National Assembly last Wednesday, some members of the President’s media team have come up with what can best be described as hysterical responses to the remarks made by Senate President, Senator David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

    “From innuendos to outright insults, the President’s media managers, led by Dr. Doyin Okupe, sought to denigrate the submissions of the two leaders of the National Assembly who in their estimation, had the temerity to tell their guests gathered at the Green Chamber that fateful Wednesday that not all things were right with past budgets and that more was expected from the Executive arm of government in the future.

    “It is worth mentioning here that Mark and Tambuwal’s speeches were made with the best of intentions aimed at finding lasting solutions to the myriad of socio-economic problems confronting the nation.

    “Speaker Tambuwal, who gave the vote of thanks in his capacity as the Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly, toed the line of the Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly, Senator Mark, to lay on the table, the fears of Nigerians and how the National Assembly thinks those fears can be better allayed.

    “The Speaker rightly asserted that as elected representatives of the people, the legislators, representing 469 federal constituencies and senatorial districts of the country, have closer interaction with the nooks and crannies of the nation. In essence, the legislature, more than any arm of government, is privileged to feel the people’s pulse more intensely and feel same on behalf and for the benefit and guidance of all the other arms of government.

    “It is therefore highly incongruous to now turn around and say such views showed disrespect to the person and office of the President.

    “It is appropriate to state here that section 81 (1), (4) as well as section 83 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) classify the proposed budget documents by the President as mere ‘estimate’ and therefore only a constitutional amendment can alter this. The phrase ‘mere’ as used by Senator Mark was not intended to demean, rather it only distinguishes between a document of finality and a proposal. It is therefore mischievous to read meanings other than those intended.

    “On the oil benchmark which the House made it clear it will set at $80 per barrel, all variables were considered in arriving at the figure. The chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Abdulmumini Jibrin, has since availed the public such superior variables which apparently may not have been countenanced by those who drafted the estimate.

    “As for the poor implementation of the capital budget for 2012 which Dr. Okupe brazenly attributed to non-utilization of already released votes, there could be no better self-indictment, as all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that ought to execute these projects are all under the Executive watch and control.”

     

    “The assertion that the National Assembly will not rubber stamp the estimates as stated by the Senate President was intended to clear the erroneous impression created in the minds of the public by military apologists in the corridors of power that the laying of the estimate by the President is akin to budget broadcast by a military dictator which is only a notice and to enlighten the people. But for the avoidance of doubt, by the clear provisions of section 59 subsection 4 of the constitution, the legislature has the FINAL say on the budget document.

    “As clearly stated in the past and for the avoidance of any doubt, Speaker Tambuwal is not on a popularity contest with any official of government. Instead, he embodies the wishes and aspiration of the Nigerian people, and expresses, at every point, only the position of the members of the House of Representatives.

    “On the rather funny issue of alleged Tambuwal’s disloyalty to the PDP which one of the aides raised in a newspaper article, nothing can be farther from the truth. It is safe to say here that Nigerians are tired of worn out sentiments dished out to them at every given opportunity in order to justify unnecessary attacks on the person of the Number Four Citizen of Nigeria.

    “As seen during the budget presentation, of all those who spoke at the event, only the Speaker recognised the presence of the PDP National Chairman in his order of protocol while delivering his vote of thanks. As a matter of fact, this loyal gesture drew the ire of opposition lawmakers who shouted ‘Nay’ repeatedly to show their disapproval at the Speaker’s recognition of his party chairman.

    “In conclusion, let me state here that the level of discourse emanating from the President’s public affairs managers is not only unbecoming of the requirement of the highest office in the land, it shows lack of depth in the understanding of public issues and governance generally including even the rudiments of democracy and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “Dr. Okupe especially is proving to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing from his days of political participation during transition of military dictatorships and into civilian democracy. With due respect, we call on Dr. Okupe and his other attack dogs to change their orientation, they can do this by making friends with the copy of the constitution. In the event they feel that this is cumbersome, they should, in the alternative, subject their opinions to vetting by those who are more conversant with the hallowed document”.

  • Video: 2013 Budget presentation

    Video: 2013 Budget presentation