President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday formally requested the National Assembly to approve the sum of N273.522bn amended budget.
According to a breakdown of the budget amendment addressed separately to Senate President, David Mark and Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, the sum of N42.27bn is for augmentation of East-West road (sections I-IV) under the Ministry of Niger Delta.
Of the sum, N93.5bn is for Federal Ministry of Works, N25bn for Abuja-Lokoja Road, N13bn for Benin-Ore-Sagamu Road; N31.5bn for kano-Maiduguri dualisation (section I-V), N7bn for Port-Harcourt-Enugu-Onitsha Road, N7 billion counterpart funding for 2nd Niger Bridge, while N10bn is for Oweto Bridge.
Of the sum of N77.42bn for the Federal Ministry of Transport, the sum of N2.2bn is for Lagos-Kano, N35bn for Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri andKN32.22bn for Kaduna-Abuja.
The sum of N58.832bn is for social safety nets and infrastructural projects, out of which N16.908bn is for maternal and child health, N27bn is for Public works for youth, N6.1bn for Mass Transit; N8.6bn for vocational training centres and N224m for Culture and Tourism.
He also requested the sum of N1bn for Board of SURE-Programme and another N500m for monitoring and evaluation.
“I seize this opportunity to express my appreciation of the National Assembly for giving accelerated hearing to the 2013 Budget Proposal and passing it in record time. This indeed demonstrates the enduring partnership between the two arms of government in discharging our shared responsibility for nation-building,” the letter read.
“However, as noted in our various consultative meetings with the Leadership and various Committees of the National Assembly following the passage of the Budget, it became imperative that certain provisions including cuts to personnel cost across the service and provisions for some capital projects be changed through an amendment budget. Right Honourable Speaker, the overriding objective remains to help improve the lives of Nigerians.
“In this respect, I hereby forward a copy each, of the 2013 Amendment Budget Proposal and the 2013 Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) Amendment Budget Proposal. It is my hope that the It is my hope that the Honourable Members of the House of Representatives will consider and approve these revised proposals in your usual expeditious manner.
“Furthermore, the 2013 Appropriation Act includes clauses which may be injurious to the spirit of separation of powers and which could hamper the work of the executive arm of government. I therefore request that these should be reviewed. The relevant clauses are:
1 a. Clause 6(H) states that: “The Accountant-General of the Federation shall forward to the National Assembly full details of funds released to the government Agencies immediately such funds are released'; while Clause 9 states that: “All Accounting Officers of Ministries, Parastatals and Departments of Government who control heads of expenditures shall upon the coming into effect of this Act furnish the National Assembly on quarterly basis with detailed information on the Internally Generated Revenue of the Agency in any form whatsoever"'. Both clauses run counter to the established chain of reporting;
b. Clause 7 states that “The Minister of Finance shall ensure that funds appropriated under this Act are released to the appropriate agencies and/or organs of government as and when due, provided that no funds for any quarter of the fiscal year shall be deferred without prior waiver from the National Assembly. This requires the Minister of Finance to seek a waiver from the National Assembly each time the Ministry of Finance cannot make full funds releases to MDAs when due. As you are aware, the nation experiences a shortfall in revenue once in a while and if the Minister is to seek a waiver on each occasion, the practice would tie down Budget implementation, as this would involve the Minister writing a formal letter to the National Assembly, presented in plenary and sent to the relevant committees for discussion. These would create delays and constraints on the budget implementation; and
c. Clause 10 states: “All revenue however described including all fees received, fines, grants, budgetary provisions and all internally and externally generated revenue shall not be spent by the Security and Exchange Commission for recurrent or Capital purposes or for any other matters, nor liabilities thereon incurred except with Prior Appropriation and Approval by the National Assembly.
“Considering the fact that the budget of the Securities and Exchange Commission does not form part of the core 2013 Federal Budget as presented to the National Assembly, I believe that this clause ought not to have been inserted in the 2013 Appropriation Act in the first place.
“Secondly, the import of the clause is tantamount to shutting down the business of the Commission with a potential negative impact on the capital market.
“While continuing to count on the productive partnership of the House of Representatives in our national transformation efforts, please accept, Right Honourable Speaker, the assurances of my highest consideration.”
 |
|
