The Senate on Thursday countered the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, over claims that the National Assembly was yet to approve President Muhammadu Buhari’s borrowing plans needed to fund capital projects in the 2017 budget.
The upper legislative chamber insisted said there is no pending loan request currently before it.
It explained that all Executive requests were approved before the National Assembly embarked on its annual recess in July.
Senate President Bukola Saraki dismissed the claims by the Finance Minister.
“There is no request before us about borrowing we have not approved. We approved all the requests before we went on break. I needed to make this explanation because of what the Minister of Finance said that the National Assembly is holding on to borrowing requests sent by the executive.”
Adeosun, had on Tuesday, while giving a report on the level of the implementation of the 2017 budget before a Joint Senate Committees on Appropriation and Finance, claimed that the Federal Government cannot fund capital projects because the National Assembly was yet to approve borrowing plan requests from the President.
Chairman of the Senate committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje, had maintained that the Senate was not in possession of any loan request from the Executive. But Adeosun had insisted and blamed the low pace of the implementation of the budget on the non-approval of the loan request by the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the Senate has indicted some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government, claiming that they do not remit revenues generated into the Federation Account.
The claims were made in a report, presented by Goje on the level of implementation of the 2017 budget.
Although he did not disclose the identities of the MDAs, he said the revenue leakages must be blocked and agencies involved sanctioned to guide against a repeat in the future.
President of the Senate, Saraki, who presided over plenary, warned that the Executive must ensure that the 2017 budget is implemented. He also warned against selective implementation of the budget.
Saraki said: “The Executive must carry out the implementation of the budget in line with what is passed. They should not go about selective implementation of the budget. If they want to borrow, they should not hesitate to send their requests”.
The Senate President also proposed that since the Executive may not implement more than 60 percent of the 2017 budget, it should consider increasing the 2018 budget to N10 trillion.
He said: “If the implementation of the 2017 budget is going to be 60 percent, it means we should expect to have a budget of N10 trillion in 2018. I hope the executive takes note of that.”
Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, in his remarks, said the virement request from the executive is unconstitutional. Instead, he maintained that the Executive should either send a supplementary budget or wait till the next financial year to send a fresh budget.
He called on his colleagues to uphold the tenets of the constitution.
He said: “Something has been disturbing me over our budget. I think this is the time to raise this issue. For me, virement is unconstitutional. We must uphold the constitution. When reforming the budget, we should take note of this. You can only spend money either through normal budget or through supplementary budget.
“This executive seems not to be interested in the process of budget. They prefer virement. The Appropriation Act is a law. We cannot just approve virement and it is not even in our constitution. We need to tell the executive that they can ask for a supplementary budget and not for virement. If the executive wants money in the future, they should come through a supplementary budget.”
In its recommendations, which were adopted by the Senate, the Goje-led committee proposed that “necessary steps should be taken to ensure that the executive does not embark on selective implementation of the budget.
“The executive must ensure that they implement 50 per cent of the budget. The 2018 budget should be passed when brought to the National Assembly without any delay.
“There are revenue leakages of operating surpluses that agencies are not remitting to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CFR). We should encourage the executive that all MDAs should be properly captured and catered for in the budget. The executive should be encouraged to block all leakages in all its agencies.”
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
