PIQUED by alleged failure of 31 government agencies to submit their budget proposals for legislative vetting, the House of Representatives has threatened to stop its consideration of the N4.2 trillion 2011 national appropriation.
The House equally resolved to take appropriate legislative sanctions against the 31 agencies involved, including the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for allegedly refusing to comply with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which mandated them to submit their budget estimates to the National Assembly.
Reviewing the level of work done by the House Committees on the processing of the 2011 budget bill, the lawmakers expressed disappointment over the failure of the 31 agencies to comply with the law.
Deputy Speaker, Usman Nafada, who presided over the session, said the manner in which these agencies spent the money they generated was a threat to the revenue of the nation.
He said the law setting up the agencies would be amended to force them to stop spending whatever they generated.
At the presentation of the 2011 budget proposal to the National Assembly in December, 2010, Speaker of the House, Dimeji Bankole, drew attention to the provision of the Fiscal Responsibility Act which stipulated that the yearly budgets of all federal agencies be submitted to the National Assembly together with the National Budget.
Bankole had said: “May I remind the National Assembly and of course our invited guests of the Fiscal Responsibility Act passed by this National Assembly this year. Part 4 Section 21 Sub Section 1 stated the government corporation and agencies and government-owned companies listed in the schedule of this Act shall have their estimate submitted to Ministry of Finance.
“The Ministry shall cost the estimates submitted in pursuance of Sub Section 2 of this section to be attached as part of the Appropriations Bill to be submitted to the National Assembly.”
And expressing the anger of the House on the alleged failure to comply with this law, Nafada said: “I have asked the Clerk of the House if the agencies have submitted their budget estimates in compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act and he told me that four of them submitted to committees. But the law said that they should submit it to the National Assembly. I am also aware that even the CBN has not submitted its budget estimates. This won’t solve the problem.
“Also, the NNPC has not submitted anything at all. Like we earlier resolved. The budget will not be passed without the submission from these agencies. As at today, the CBN has invested over N1 billion on AMCON. Honourable colleagues, we are not going to pass the budget without the budget estimates of the 31 agencies.”
On why it is imperative for the National Assembly to vet the budget of the 31 agencies, Nafada said: “The overheads of just three of these agencies are more than the national overhead. And the price of crude oil has been rising, so we have to put a stop to the manner these agencies spend money. The fact that your brother is the head of an agency today does not mean that he should not obey the law because nobody is above the law”
Earlier, Chairman, Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang, urged the House to take a collective stand against passing the appropriation without the budget estimates of the 31 agencies.
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