Budget 2016 full of errors, can’t be passed – NASS
ABUJA —The two arms of the National Assembly, NASS, declared,
yesterday, that the 2016 budget was full of errors, saying the document
could no longer be passed on February 25 as earlier promised.
This came on a day the Senate Committee on Gas Resources rejected the
N200 million allocation demanded by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum
Resources in the budget for the treatment of Petroleum Industry Bill,
PIB, and another N200 million for a review of Nigeria Gas Master Plan.
Similarly, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, yesterday, urged
President Muhammadu Buhari to save the country the national
embarrassment being caused by the 2016 budget he presented to the
National Assembly by formally withdrawing and representing it.
Budget can’t be passed, say Goje, Jibrin
Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, and
his House of Representatives counterpart, Jibrin Abdulmumin, who
disclosed this at a briefing, said the budget was fraught with too many
errors, which had made its passage into law impossible. Buhari presents N6.08trn 2016 budget to NASS
Senator Goje noted that the Presidency had also admitted that there
were errors in the budget, explaining that it would be inappropriate to
give a new date now due to the errors that they would have to work on.
He said: “We are here in connection with the ongoing processing of
the 2016 Budget because these two committees are the ones saddled with
the production of the final copies of the budget that would be passed by
the National Assembly for onward submission to Mr President for his
assent and subsequent implementation.
“We want to remove all ambiguities, we want to remove all paddings.
We want to produce a budget that is in line with the constitutional
provision. During the budget defence, a lot of issues based on the
padding of the budget, arising from over-bloated overheads and in some
instances cases of over-bloated personnel cost.
“But generally, there has been a lot of issues. The appropriation
committee would look at these issues after the whole budget defence and
do a very thorough work aimed at doing a proper clean-up of the budget.
“So in summary, the time-table for passage of the budget is no longer
realistic because as appropriation committees of both chambers of the
National Assembly, we need additional time to do a thorough job for the
2016 budget.”
On his part, the House Chairman on Appropriation Committee,
Abdulmumin, agreed that the two committees would have to do a proper
clean up of the budget.
He said: “So we can pass a budget that is implementable and also
acceptable to Nigerians. It is no longer realistic because we need
sufficient time to pass a comprehensive budget.
“The President is an individual, the budget runs in thousands of
pages, the President will not be able to go through it page by page.”
He explained that once the budget is passed into law, the life span
of the budget would be counted to ensure that Ministries, Departments
and Agencies, MDAs, implement it.
Asked to react to a threat made by the Minister of Health, Isaac
Adewole, that he would withdraw his budget, Jibrin said the withdrawing
of a budget by the executive would not be tolerated by NASS.
Both chairmen also denied that the sudden shift in date had political
colouration, adding that the shift was because of the many errors
discovered in the budget.
Senate rejects N200m on PIB
The Senate Committee on Gas Resources also yesterday, rejected the
N200 million demanded in the budget by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum
Resources for treatment of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.
The committee also rejected request for allocation of additional N200 million for a review of the Nigeria Gas Master Plan.
The ministry, while defending its 2016 Budget before the committee,
had said it needed N200 million for the passage of the PIB in the
National Assembly.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Dr.
Jamila Shuaru, while making presentation at the committee’s sitting,
insisted that the amount was needed for the treatment of the petroleum
bill.
But Senator Bassey Albert Akpan, chairman of the committee, backed by
other members, said the allocation was not necessary because, according
to him, the bill is already with the National Assembly.
“This bill is already with the National Assembly. So what do we need
the money for? I don’t think you need the money. This could be one of
the reasons we have so much deficit in this year’s budget. Unless you
can justify this expenditure, we need to do away with this,” Senator
Albert said.
The committee members who spoke at the meeting, concurred with the
chairman that the bill did not need additional funding for it to be
passed.
The committee also disagreed with the ministry officials over the
N200 million proposed in the 2016 budget for a review of Nigerian Gas
Master Plan.
The committee said it discovered that funding request for the plan had been a recurring figure in previous budgets.
“You cannot be asking for funds to review what you have not even
implemented,” Senator Albert said, adding that the only problem with the
PIB was that there was no law backing it up.
Briefing the committee further, Dr. Jamila Shuaru said the country
could not meet its gas needs because, according to her, many exigencies
worked against the success of the programme.
One of the exigencies, she said, was the $8 billion court judgement
procured against the ministry by an investor whose identity she did not
disclose.
Save us this shame, by Fayose
On his part, Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, urged President
Muhammadu Buhari to save the country the national embarrassment being
caused by the budget he presented to the National Assembly by formally
withdrawing and representing it.
The governor in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Pubic
Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said: “The President should
admit that there were avoidable errors in the budget and since he is
human and not immune to errors, he should simply do the needful by
presenting a new and credible budget to the National Assembly.”
Governor Fayose described the revelation by Health Minister, Isaac
Adewole, that the proposal drawn up by the ministry and submitted to the
budget office had been doctored and that “foreign” appropriations,
different from what was submitted, had been sneaked in as the height of
national embarrassment.
While addressing the Senate Committee on Health during its budget
defence session on Monday, Professor Adewole had stunned senators when
he said details of the budget were not what he submitted to the Senate.
Fayose said: “Last week, we were told that the Senate discovered a
sum of N10 billion questionably smuggled into the budget of the Ministry
of Education for an allegedly questionable sub-head.
“Also, we were told of the existence of a budget mafia in the
Presidency that was said to be responsible for the embarrassing
allocations in the budget.
“Before now, we were told that a total of N3.87 billion was allocated
for capital projects at the State House Clinic alone, over N700 million
more than capital allocation to all the 16 federal teaching hospitals
combined.
“Now, a whole minister has come out to say that budgetary provision for his ministry was forged!
“If under a President that says he is fighting corruption, the budget
of the country got missing and we are now being told that the budget
being considered by the National Assembly has been forged, one cannot
but be afraid that there is possibility of Nigeria being forged one day,
after the original must have gone missing.”
Budget well structured, says Ministry official
The Ministry of Budget and Planning says that the 2016 Budget
proposals submitted to the National Assembly (NASS) by President
Muhammadu Buhari, were very well structured and targeted at reviving the
economy, notwithstanding the fall in the oil price.
The ministry was reacting to different opinions trailing the 2016
budget proposal. It said that some errors were not unexpected in the
changeover to the new Zero Based Budget, ZBB, approach.
In a statement, issued yesterday by the Director of Information, Mr.
Charles Dafe, the Ministry said the Budget staff in the Ministry of
Budget and National Planning, as well as those handling budget issues in
all Ministries and Extra Ministerial Agencies (MDAs) were
already grappling to master the technicalities in the ZBB template to
address all irregularities in the budget.
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