President Muhammadu Buhari has requested that the 2022 appropriation act be amended, as it accused the National Assembly of padding the year’s budget estimates.
Criticising the National Assembly following a letter addressed he addressed to them some days ago, Buhari alleged that the lawmakers removed crucial projects from the budget estimates sent to it by the executive, and inserted theirs to the tune of N887 billion in the fiscal document before it was signed into law.
Identifying 139 out of the 254 projects in the budget totaling N13.24 billion for outright deletion, the President said it was imperative to remove all capital projects that were replicated in the 2022 Appropriation Act.
He, therefore, requested the National Assembly to amend the Appropriation Act to provide for capital expenditure in the sum of N106,161,499,052 billion; and N43,870,592,044 billion for recurrent expenditure.
He also requested that an additional provision for N2.557 trillion be appropriated by the National Assembly to fund the petrol subsidy in the 2022 budget framework, which was revised to provide fully for.
His words: “You will agree with me that the inclusion of National Assembly’s expenditures in the Executive Budget negates the principles of separation of Powers and financial autonomy of the Legislature.
“It is, therefore, necessary to transfer the National Assembly’s expenditures totaling N16.59 billion in the Service Wide Vote to National Assembly Statutory Transfer provision (see Schedule l).
“It is also imperative to reinstate the N22 billion cut from the provision for Sinking Fund to Retire Mature Loans to ensure that government can meet its obligations under already issued bonds as and when they mature.
“The cuts made from provisions for the recurrent spending of Nigeria’s Foreign Missions, which are already constrained, are capable of causing serious embarrassment to the country as they mostly relate to office and residential rentals.
“Similarly, the reductions in provisions for allowances payable to personnel of the Nigerian Navy and Police Formations and Commands could create serious issues for government. It is therefore imperative that these provisions be restored as proposed
“It is also absolutely necessary to remove all capital projects that are replicated in the 2022 Appropriation Act. 139 out of the 254 such projects totaling N13.24 billion have been identified to be deleted from the budget.
“Some significant and non-mandate projects were introduced in the budgets of the Ministry of Transportation, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation
“There are several other projects that have been included by the National Assembly in the budgets of agencies that are outside their mandate areas.
“The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has been directed to work with your relevant Committees to comprehensively identify and realign all such misplaced projects.”
