Members of the House of Representatives on Thursday decided that no funds from the capital projects should be moved to recurrent projects, exceptions, however, were made.
An exception, according to the representative of the Epe Federal Constituency, Wale Raji, “becomes necessary for the Committee to come in here to defend their budget and they justify why they needed increase for recurrent.”
He said, “Budget defence will start by Monday next week. We have been given the timetable to work for two weeks. The Committees will work for two week and after two weeks, the budget will be brought back here.
“The issue of recurrent, specifically, we will be more careful on recurrent. No money should be taken from the recurrent to the capital or from the capital to the recurrent except where it becomes necessary for the Committee to come in here to defend their budget and they justify why they needed increase for recurrent. We will as a Committee and look at it and if there is any other way, we find money and give them.
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“Work with the Committees and subcommittees. If you working with them, you have to guide them. The percentages will be given to you by the Clerk.
“It will be typed and be given to heads of the subcommittees and members but please, we have to be very serious with the guidelines because in the last budget, we really had some issues that we had to sit and do some reconciliations.
“And again, when it comes to budget especially for our legislators where members or distingushed senators will decide their projects, we have to look at the agencies within that mandate.
“We have a lot of corrigendums this year. Assuming now you have projects for classroom and you are taking a classroom to the federal ministry of agriculture, it is not done. You have solar street light, you take it to UBEC, they will reject it. It is not their mandate.
“This is an election year. If you domicile your project with an agency and they reject them, before we start the new processing, you lose the project.
“So, as subcommittees and you are working with Committees, you will sit with them, give them the guidelines that if they move out of the agencies and it is not their mandate, as Committee on appropriations, you will take the projects where they are supposed to be.
“In our timetable, we are proposing to lay the budget on 14 of December, consider on 15.”
