2018 budget: We’re not rubber stamp – Reps react to Buhari’s complaint of alteration

The House of Representatives has responded to President Muhammadu
Buhari's complaint that the National Assembly altered the 2018 budget.


Hon Abdulrazak Namdas, Chairman, House Committee on Media, said the
budget is usually a proposal by the Executive to the National
Assembly, which the latter is given the constitutional power of
appropriation to alter, make additions, costs or reduce as it may deem
necessary.

"The Legislature is not expected to be a rubber-stamp by simply
approving the Executive proposals and returning the budget to Mr.
President. Therefore, the additions Mr. President complained of in his
speech are justifiable", he said.


"We are on the same page with Mr. President in his desire to return
our budget cycle to January-December. By the provisions of the Fiscal
Responsibility Act, 2007, the budget estimates should be with the
National Assembly around September of the year. In the case of the
2018 budget, the estimates came behind schedule in November 2017, even
though this attempt was seen as one of the earliest in recent years.
Going forward, we urge the Executive to speed up the reporting time to
the National Assembly by complying fully with the FRA.

"Besides, there were delays that should be blamed on the heads of
MDAs. Mr. President will recall that he had to direct ministers and
heads of agencies to go to the National Assembly to defend their
proposals. This came after the National Assembly had persistently
raised the alarm over the non-cooperative attitudes of these
government officials. On this grounds, the delay in passing the budget
cannot be blamed on the legislature.

"New projects in budget. On this aspect, we have to remind Mr.
President that we are representatives of our people and wish to state
that even the common man deserves a mention in the budget by including
projects that will directly affect his life positively. Some of the
projects designed by the executive, as high-sounding as their names
suggest, do not meet the needs of the common man.


"National Assembly budget. Before 2015, the budget of the National
Assembly was N150billion for several years. It was cut down to N120bn
in 2015 and further down to N115bn in 2016. In 2017, the budget was
N125bn and N139.5bn in 2018. This means that the budget of the
National Assembly is still far below the N150bn in the years before
2015.

"While we commend Mr. President for a good working relationship, we
also wish to state that we have a job to do, which requires adequate
funding as well. The additional costs and projects to the budget were
done in good faith for the sole purpose of improving the lives of
Nigerians.

"Finally, we welcome the proposal by Mr. President to forward a
supplementary budget to the National Assembly to address other areas
of pressing demands and commend the President and the entire executive
arm for a cordial working relationship.@