Leadership of the House of Representatives on Monday assured Nigerians that the 2016 budget would be passed by mid-March, despite various challenges observed.
The joint Senate and House Committees on Appropriations also directed all the standing committees to present harmonised budget of all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to their respective committees on appropriations.
Abdulmumin Jibrin, chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, gave the assurance at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, while reacting to media report alleging that the House had postponed the initial date of February 25, for the passage of the 2016 budget indefinitely.
Jibrin, who also chaired the budget defence of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), threatened to give zero allocation to any Committee/MDAs that fail to meet the February 15, deadline.
“The passage of budget has not been suspended indefinitely. What we say is that due to the errors discovered, we will need additional time to take a second look at the budget and to also take on the minister of finance and the minister of budget and national planning.
“I can confirm to you clearly that the extension of time is to allow appropriation committee to do a necessary cleaning up. Taking this into consideration, the budget will be passed by the second week of March,” Jibrin said.
Mohammed Monguno, chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, confirmed that the Senate and House Committee on Agriculture held a meeting to harmonise the budget of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and all the agencies, departments and parastatals.
At the opening of the defence of MDAs final budget to the Appropriation Committee, the lawmakers queried the N830 million proposed for residential buildings for FRSC Corp Marshal and other top functionaries.
From the total sum of N31,175,137,565 proposed allocation, the sum of N28,424,910,675 is for recurrent, N2,750,226,890 is for capital, while N762,977,534 is for overhead.
Other sub-heads questioned by the Appropriations Committee increase for the electricity charges from N9,623,361 to N19,623,361; international training from N4,738,198 to N34,738,198 and publicity and awareness from N16,331,078 to N56,331078, which they described as “astronomical”.
They also questioned the sum of N636 million (average of N56m monthly expenditure) proposed for servicing of the Corp Marshal’s fleet as well as N56,331,075 for publicity and awareness against the sum of N16,331,075 initially proposed for the Corp and N1.065 billion for operational vehicles and ancillary equipment (flashers, VHF, etc).
Likewise, the committee expressed concern over the reduction in the internet access from N18,922,516 to N8,922,516; maintenance of motor vehicle/transport equipment from N79,685,086 to N59,685,936, and motor vehicle fuel cost from N122,424,296 to N72,424,295.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA
