ABUJA— Halfway into the year and three months before the 2014 budget is expected to be presented to the National Assembly for deliberation, the lawmakers and the Presidency are still squabbling over the 2013 budget.
President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, sent the third 2013 Budget Amendment to the Senate. The senators, however, say this will not be considered until September.
President Jonathan sent the budget amendment on a day both the Senate and the House of Representatives frowned at comments attributed to the Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the dangers of the National Assembly not passing this year’s budget by September. The lawmakers accused Jonathan of reneging on an earlier agreement that should he sign the 2013 budget, legislators will approve an immediate follow-up amendment he would send to lawmakers.
The House of Reps has therefore summoned the Minister of Finance to appear before it, while the Senate warned the minister not to pit the National Assembly against the president.
President Jonathan in a letter to Senate President, David Mark, dated June 26, 2013, sent a third 2013 budget amendment to the Senate, bringing out some proposed changes in some select expenditure categories, even as he noted that some capital projects which allocations were reduced by the National Assembly be restored as that would help promote national development.
Time too short — Abaribe
Speaking with newsmen, yesterday, on the new amendment sent by the president, Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Publicity, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, explained that Jonathan forwarded “voluminous” amendments as opposed to specific alterations agreed under the deal, thereby making legislative consideration protracted.
Abaribe said: “What we got from the President, which is actually the third Amendment is a sort of document amending the budget. Now we found that these documents are even larger than the budget itself and there is no way that the Senate and even the National Assembly can consider these amendments until we come back from our vacation this year.
“There is absolutely no way amendments of this nature would be considered for the short time that we have until we go on our national vacation. The point really is that it is not about the report; there are differences and this was discussed with the presidency. We were to take care of the differences and deal with them.
"Coming now to bring up a whole list of amendments that are even much more than the original that was sent, I do not expect the presidency would say we shouldn’t have enough time to go through it.
“In addition to that, we have other things we would want to deal with. But we would want to appeal that efforts should not be made to put us on a collision course. We are not on a collision course. We are all interested in making sure that the budget as passed would be implemented, and implemented in such a way that everybody within this country will get the benefit of why the budget was passed in the first place.
“We know that in September as the president has promised, there is going to be a new budget. So, when you bring a budget of this volume and then you bring another budget in September, what do you expect us to do"?
Okonjo-Iweala's alarm
On Okonjo-Iweala’s alarm, that the nation would be shut down by next September if the National Assembly does not pass the re-amended 2013 budget proposal submitted last week by President Goodluck Jonathan, the Senate Spokesperson said:
"The National Assembly was perplexed when we heard about comments allegedly made by Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy with respect to the budget. First of all, the Senate does not view the comments lightly. The feeling of the Senate and of course the National Assembly has always been that we do not expect Ministers of the Federal Republic and appointees of the President to make comments that tend to give the impression of a collision course between the executive and legislature, because we are all working towards the same purpose; and which is to make sure that we take care of the welfare of Nigerians.
"Therefore, we find it not to our liking when a comment is made that tends to say that government will be shut down if the National Assembly doesn’t do anything. We do not agree with that."
Okonjo-Iweala had on Monday raised an alarm that economic activities might be shut down and the Federal Government would be unable to pay its workforce by September if the lingering crisis in the 2013 Appropriation Act between the Presidency and the National Assembly was not resolved.
Jonathan's 3rd amendment
Jonathan’s Third 2013 Budget Amendment letter read in full: "As you may recall, I had transmitted the 2013 Amendment Budget proposal to the National Assembly on March 14, 2013.
"However, following further consultations, I am forwarding a new version of the categorized 2013 Amendment Budget proposal indicating changes proposed across the expenditure categories. The Capital Projects have now been designated as follows: “critical” is designated as (I); “important” is designated as (ii) and “others” designated as (iii).
"Some Capital Projects, the allocations of which were reduced and which we seek your cooperation in restoring so as to promote national development, include the following:
"Ministry of Works: Abuja-Lokoja Road reduced by N4billion; Kano-Maiduguri Road reduced by N3.5billion; Dualization of Ibadan-Ilorin Section 2 reduced by N5.5billion; rehabilitation of Jebba Bridge reduced by N1.25billion; rehabilitation of burnt
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