How Senators’ interests delayed 2017 budget

Fresh facts have emerged as to why the passage of the 2017 Appropriation Bill was delayed by both chambers of the National Assembly, specifically the Senate.

Ripples Nigeria reliably gathered that angry lawmakers, who felt shortchanged in the allocation and distribution of constituency projects, vowed to scuttle the passage of the budget, if their interest were not accommodated.

It was learnt that the Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriations, Senator Danjuma Goje, declined to accommodate requests from his colleagues, who besieged his office in order to ensure that the interests of their Senatorial Districts were adequately captured in the budget.

It was also learnt that while Goje reportedly declined to accommodate requests from his colleagues, principal officers of the Senate, however got juicy allocations to cater for their constituency projects in the 2017 budget.

Angered by the discrepancies, the aggrieved lawmakers, vowed to fight on until the alleged lopsidedness in the allocation of projects, was corrected by Goje-led committee.

They were however temporarily pacified, when they were promised that their interests would be accommodated later in the year through a supplementary budget.

Read also: Senate releases bombshell, says MDAs stink of corruption

Meanwhile, the National Assembly has increased its annual budget from N115 billion to N125 billion. The proposal submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari, had N115 billion budgeted for the National Assembly.

But the leadership of the National Assembly, however, increased it to N125. No official explanation was offered to newsmen why the figure was raised by the National Assembly.

According to a skeletal breakdown of the budget made available to newsmen on Thursday by the Senate spokesman, Abdullahi Sabi, the management of both chambers will get N14.9 billion.

The Senate is to gulp N31.3 billion, while the House of Representatives is expected to expend N49.05 billion in the 2017 budget.

National Assembly Service Commission will get N2.415 billion. In the same vein, Legislative Aides will gulp N9.602 billion, while Public Accounts Committee of the Senate will get N118.9 million.

Similarly, House of Representatives Public Accounts is to get N142.764. General Services Department of the National Assembly will get N12.584 billion.

National Assembly Legislative Institute is to receive N4.373 billion. Service Wide Vote stands at N391.396. The total sum is N125 billion.

This is the first time since 1999, that the leadership of the National Assembly will make its budget public. President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, had in 2015, promised to make the details of the National Assembly budget public.

It however took Saraki almost two years to make sub heads of the National Assembly budget public. Details of the budget are yet to be made public.

President Buhari, on the 14th of December, 2016, presented the 2017 budget before a joint session of the National Assembly.

It took the National Assembly almost six months to pass the budget, despite its earlier promise to get it passed in record time.

 

 

 

 

 

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