Senators, Reps tackle FG over N’Assembly budget

The Executive arm of government and the National Assembly may be in for a last minute battle over the 2011 budget as the legislators, on Wednesday, rejected the latest 48 per cent cut in their allocation.

President Goodluck Jonathan had, in the amendment submitted on Tuesday, slashed the budget of the National Assembly from the N232.74bn passed by the lawmakers to N120bn, in spite of its inclusion in the budget’s statutory transfers.

This was in the pursuit of the administration’s determination to cut recurrent expenditure, which had been bloated by the increased allocation of the National Assembly.

But the legislature, in the harmonised version of the 2011 Appropriation (Amendment) Bill, rejected the President’s proposal, increased its budget to N150bn and jerked the entire budget up by N77bn.

It approved a total of N4.484tn, earmarking N417.82bn for statutory transfers; N495.096bn for debt servicing, N2.425tn for recurrent expenditure and N1.146tn for capital expenditure.

The Executive had presented an amendment bill of N4.407tn, which was N563bn less than the N4.97tn initially passed by the legislators, after the Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, had pointed out that the budget, as passed, could not be implemented.

But the legislature, after considering the reviewed proposal, increased it from N4.407tn to N4.484tn, a difference of about N77bn.

It also increased the recurrent expenditure component of the budget by N23.7bn and capital expenditure by N23.9bn.

Some of the agencies, which benefited from the recent increases by the National Assembly, include Defence/Army/Air Force/Navy, which got an additional N18bn, and the Ministry of Foreign and Intergovernmental Affairs, which had N2.1bn.

It is, however, not certain whether the Executive, which had succeeded in reducing borrowing by over N700bn with its latest cut in recurrent expenditure, will accept the legislators’ N30bn addition to their allocation.

When asked, on Wednesday, whether the latest increment by the legislators would stand, the finance minister said, “Unfortunately, we are unable to comment until we receive the details tomorrow. I can assure you that we will look at it in detail and come up with a decision as quickly as possible.”

However, the President of the Senate, Mr. David Mark, in his remarks, said that the reduction from N4.97tn to N4.484tn would facilitate the implementation of the budget by the Executive.

He urged the President to ensure that the budget was implemented in full as a departure from the past.

“In the past, we had seen the budget not being implemented in full. But with this reduction, we expect the Executive to implement it 100 per cent. The problem of leaving some projects unimplemented should not arise this time,” Mark said.

Although some senators had some misgivings as regards adjustments in some projects, changes could not be effected because the bill had already been harmonised by both chambers.