Dogara to Executive arm: Don’t alter approved Budget

…As NASS okays N7.441tr for 2017 Fiscal year

.Improved relationship with NASS, signals beginning of many good things to come- Presidency

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, on Thursday, warned the Executive arm of government against any alteration of the figures of the 2017 Budget without approval of the National Assembly.

The 2017 budget was passed at plenary on Thursday by both chambers of the National Assembly.

Speaking obviously in reference to the scandal of padding in the 2016 Budget, which led to the suspension of erstwhile Chairman of the appropriation committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, Dogara said the warning was in order to maintain the integrity of the document and the House.

The both Houses of the National Assembly had earlier on Thursday at plenary passed the 2017 Appropriation Bill, raising the budget from N7.28 billion proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari in December last year, to N7, 441,175,486,758 trillion.

The Appropriation Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives separately presented their harmonised reports of the budget for consideration and subsequent passage on Thursday.

The passage by the Senate on Thursday followed the submission of report of the Senate Committee on Appropriation on a Bill authorising the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, coordinated by Senator Danjuma Goje last Tuesday.

A breakdown of the budget showed that it earmarked the sum of N434,412,950,249 only, for statutory transfers, N1,841,345,727,206 only, for Debt Services and N177,460, 296, 707 only is for Sinking Funds for maturity bonds, while N2,177,867 only is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure (exclusive of capital expenditure in statutory transfers) for the year ending on N31st December, 2017.

The budget premised on an oil benchmark of $44.5 per barrel and an exchange rate of N335 to a dollar, was raised by the legislature against the initial N7.3 trillion which was earlier proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 19, 2016.

Commenting on the passage of the 2017 budget which the Presidency tagged “Budget of Recovery and Growth”, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, commended the cordial relationship between the executive and the legislature which culminated to the achievement recorded in the passage of the appropriation bill.

Saraki appealed to the executive to work towards ensuring that the 2018 budget is transmitted to the National Assembly by September.

He commended the contributions and commitment shown by the public and the civil societies in making the 2017 budget remarkable, adding that it was the first time in the history of the country that the budget was subjected to public hearing.

“The budget of the National Assembly was for the first time also made available to the public,” the Senate President stated, adding that the budget was subjected through wide consultation with stakeholders and reflected equity and allocation of adequate resources to relevant sectors.”

Saraki further expressed confidence that the executive will ensure full implementation of the budget so that Nigeria’s can feel the impact on their lives.

Senator Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central) also expressed concern that the budget if fully implemented will truly address the problems before Nigeria.

He posited that there are economic challenges which the country is facing, stressing that the only way out is careful planning and thorough research.

Senate spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, also noted that the budget took seriously the issue of NYSC fund. He said that funds were also allocated for national planning, while deficit issues for MDAs were also captured.

He expressed satisfaction with the job done by the entire Senate and the National Assembly Appropriation committees while hoping that the budget will be implemented fully as appropriated.

Also, the Senior Special Adviser to the on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, expressed appreciation to the National Assembly for the passage of the budget.

He also commended the Executive for their commitment and relationship with the legislature, stressing that it signals the beginning of many good things to come.

Meanwhile, a look at the Budget passed by the House of Representatives shows a differential of N143 billion higher than what President Muhammadu Buhari submitted to the National Assembly.

While Buhari proposed N7.29 trillion in the budget estimate submitted to the National Assembly on December 14, 2016, the House eventually passed N7.441 trillion.

A breakdown of the budget shows that the legislative aides with a total salary of N8.97 billion and running cost of N534.968 million, now command N150 million for projects. The total budget of legislative aides is N9.602 billion.

Under statutory transfers, the National Assembly commands the highest budget of N125 billion, while National Judicial Council got a budget of N100 billion.

While Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) got N45 billion, Public Complaints Commission and National Human Right Commission got the lowest budget of N4 and N1.2 billion respectively.

A breakdown of the National Assembly budget shows that management got N14.919 billion, Senate, N31.398 billion, House of Representatives, N49.052 billion, National Assembly Service Commission, N2.415 billion, Legislative Aides, N9.602 billion, Senate Public Account Committee N118.970 million, House Public Account Committee N142.764 million, General Services N12.584 billion, National Assembly Legislative Institute N4.373 billion and Service-wide-Vote, N391.396 million.

The nation’s domestic and foreign debts stand at N1.663 trillion.
Under recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, the breakdown of Ministry, Departments and Agencies budgets show a total N2.086 trillion. While the Ministry of Interior takes the lion share of N472.597 billion, Ministries of Education and Defence followed with a budget of N398.686 billion and N330.543 billion.

Under capital expenditure, with a total of N1.710 trillion, the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing got the highest total of N553.713 billion, followed by Ministry of Transportation with a budget of N241.709 billion and
Ministry of Defence, N139.294 billion.

Addressing newsmen on the budget shortly after the plenary, Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity, Hon. Abdukrazak Namdas, giving a breakdown of what informed the final passage disclosed that the estimates were predicated on the revenue assumption of an oil price benchmark of US$42.50 per barrel and production rate of 2.2 million barrels per day, adding that the House introduced conduct of a public hearing before the passage of the Budget which enabled input from stakeholders, thereby making the whole process transparent.

Speaking on measures undertaken by the House which were novel to Budget preparations in the past, Namdas said the Appropriation Committee for the first time in the nation’s National Budget process, jointly held a public Hearing with its Senate Committee counterpart.

“The Hearing among other things opened a link with different sections and sectors of the polity to inform the National Assembly with informed sectoral inputs as well as open up space for more inclusive and participatory engagements.

“We stood by our word by releasing details of our own budget. For the first time, we have released details of our budget. It is now left for the public to see that the National Assembly is trying its best,” Namdas said.