The Senate on Thursday, rejected a budget proposal for 52 federal agencies and parastatals because they had already been captured in the N4.695trl national budget.
Instead, the upper chamber opted to work on only the budgets of agencies and parastatals that had yet to be captured in the 2014 budget.
A mild drama however ensued when Deputy Senate Leader Abdul Ningi, who stood in for Senate Leader Victor Ndoma Egba (SAN) read the 2014 budget proposal for consideration on the floor of the Senate for the federal government agencies.
The development led to expression of surprise and amazement by most senators, who are chairmen of the various committees, who had treated and passed budget of agencies under their supervision.
They argued that apart from the Central Bank of Nigeria, management of all the agencies listed for fresh appropriation had already appeared before standing committees to defend the budget estimates.
The senators insisted that they were waiting for President Goodluck Jonathan, to sign the new budget and begin its implementation.
For instance, the Vice chairman, Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Isa Galaudu said, “the presentation of the budget proposal is belated. We should find out how this document came to this chamber.”
Also, Senator Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan, said, “we have already passed the 2014 budget. This can only come as a supplementary budget but what I want to know is this: Did we pass these budgets with the main budget? If we didn’t, then, it’s too late.”
The Senate Spokesman, Enyinnaya Abaribe, who spoke under Order 26 (6) of the Senate Standing Orders (2011, as amended), said that the Senate has dealt with the matter of 2014 budget and that there is no need to go back to it again.
In his response to the issue, the Senate President, Senator David Mark explained that the problem with the proposal was that the Committee on Rules and Business should have removed some agencies that had been treated by the National Assembly, from the list.
He therefore asked the Chairman, Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang to clear the air on the budgets.
Enang howeever said, “This document is from the Budget Office of the Federation of the Federal Ministry of Finance. It came with the federal budget. I have not tampered with it.
“It was produced and given to the Appropriation Committee. This copy was gotten from the Appropriation Committee and circulated, in compliance with section 21 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.”
A careful observation of the document revealed that the CBN has a budget of N633.118bn, N889. 76m was allocated as lunch and other allowances for the Police while another N269,79m earmarked as consultancy fees for the force in the year.
The NNPC also has a budget of N3.555trl for the year, with personnel expenses put at N184.76bn while N398.359bn, was for overheads.
The NNPC, according to the document, will spend N450bn on capital expenditure while the Nigeria Ports Authority proposed N144.9bn, Security and Exchange Commission, N15.6bn and the Nigerian Maritime Safety Administration proposed a budget of N86bn for the year. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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