Surreptitious moves for the inclusion of fresh sub-heads/projects in the 2023 Appropriation Bill are responsible for the delay of its passage by the National Assembly(NASS), findings have revealed.
It was gathered that top officials of Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) and some National Assembly members had since President Muhammadu Buhari presented the budget proposal on October 7, 2022 inundated the NASS Appropriation Committees with new subheads/projects.
A source in Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning told our correspondent at the weekend that the officials and the federal lawmakers claimed that funds for the subheads/projects were not captured in the 2023 financial appropriation.
The source, who absolved the Executive of any blame in the passage of the bill, said the lawmakers predicated their request s on the grounds that the “omitted’’ items were a part of their constituency projects.
He added that the MDAs’ top officials argued that their ‘omitted’ projects were to cover areas earlier left out in the proposed N20.51trillion budget.
The source, who did not want his name in print, also dismissed last Thursday’s claim by Senate President Ahmad Lawan that the budget was laden with errors.
His words: ”The only plausible explanation known to the Ministry is the need for more time by the Appropriations Committees of both chambers of the National Assembly to reflect additional inputs to the budget by both the Executive and Legislative arms of government.
“Some of them claim that some items or projects are not captured in the budget for funding. Some National Assembly members, we have learnt, argued that such items or sub-heads are a part of their constituency projects.
“All these, we know, affect the work of the NASS committees on Appropriation and are, therefore, largely responsible for the delay in the passage of the bill.”
Efforts to pass the budget suffered a setback last Thursday, following what Senate President Lawan described as challenges encountered during its clause-by –clause consideration by relevant Appropriation committees.
Lawan, who blamed the Executive for the failure to pass on the budget on schedule, said the proposal was not only submitted late but it came with errors. He, however, assured that the Appropriation bill would be passed on Wednesday in keeping with the January – December budget cycle.
Lawan said: “We are not able to pass the 2023 Appropriations Bill due to some challenges.
“We are not able to receive the report of the Appropriations Committee and the main reason for this is because the Appropriation Bill came to the National Assembly with some problems.
“When our Committees on Appropriation in the Senate and the House of Representatives started to reconcile the figures of what was presented, the problems became very obvious and they were not easy to deal with.
“Therefore, our committees had to start the process of cleaning the bill first. That process also engaged the executive arm because the problem came from there.
“It was concluded only yesterday (Wednesday) and our committee secretariat was not able to finish processing the budget for us to take today nor tomorrow, Saturday or Sunday because these are periods that are for festivities, the Christmas period. Monday and Tuesday are public holidays.
“Consequently we can only receive the report and consider it on Wednesday, the 28th, that’s the earliest. “All the appropriations since 2019 till date had been passed before the end of the year. I believe this will be one of the legacies of the 9th National Assembly.
“By the grace of God on the 28th of this month, the Senate and the House of Representatives will all come back to receive and consider the budget report from our committees.
“But Let me advise the Executive. The bills that have come to us, the Ways and Means, the Supplementary Appropriation, whoever is invited to come and explain, give information or any detail for the National Assembly to understand must do so, because its is not our work alone.
“We want to do our work thoroughly, we want to understand whatever we are going to deal with and to base our decisions on information, and time is of essence.
“Just like we are going to sacrifice part of our festive period to be back here, nobody should tell us that they are in their places because it is Christmas. They should be available with every necessary information.”
The Nation
