Posted by By GEOFFREY ANYANWU, Awka on
The N8 billion 2007 supplementary budget submitted to the Anambra State House of Assembly by Governor Peter Obi a month ago has met a brickwall as the House says it would not give its approval unless the governor explains how he spent the money budgeted for the fiscal year.
The N8 billion 2007 supplementary budget submitted to the Anambra State House of Assembly by Governor Peter Obi a month ago has met a brickwall as the House says it would not give its approval unless the governor explains how he spent the money budgeted for the fiscal year.
Already, there are allegations that some forces outside the state were frustrating the recently launched work plan of the governor by ensuring that the House rejects the supplementary budget.
But reacting to the allegation, Speaker of the State's House of Assembly, Hon. Anayo Nnebe, told newsmen that there was nothing like refusing to approve the budget, but that the House only demanded from the governor a breakdown of how 2007 budget was implemented before it could work on a fresh or supplementary budget.
He said, 'We received copies of the supplementary budget from the executive and we wrote the governor a letter requesting that he should give a rundown of how the main budget was implemented, which is the normal due process in a line with the statutory ways of presenting a supplementary budget. That does not mean that we refused to approve the budget as people are alleging.
'Things must be done the proper way and I am sure that the executive is alive to their responsibilities and obligations and I wish to add here that there was nothing like a meeting with anybody where we were asked or told not to do our job as stipulated by the constitution of the country."
But declaring open a five-day stakeholder's forum on participatory budgeting organised by the European Union for the state in Awka yesterday, Governor Obi noted that he was not part of the process of the 2007 budget, stressing that for any budget to be it, it must be participatory, adding that the reason there was a supplementary budget was because of political instability in the state.
The governor, who described himself as an expert in managing money efficiently, said it was wrong to borrow money to build infrastructure that would not yield any income for the state, stressing, 'If anybody thinks we are going to borrow money in order to build roads where people don't pay toll, or going to borrow money to complete the secretariat, you are only going to put the state into further difficulties in the future."
However, while the Speaker insisted that detailed account of 2007 budget implementation must be given before the House approves any other money, the Commissioner for Finance; Mr. Eze Echesi, said the Ministry has supplied the House its requirement.
He said that though he was not aware of any refusal by the House to approve the N8 billion supplementary budget, he was sure that 'the Assembly has all it takes to consider the supplementary budget. I don't know about refusal, they asked for information which was supplied to them and I believe that in a short while, they will give approval to the budget".
Echesi assured that the approval or refusal of the supplementary budget would not affect the three months work plan launched recently by Governor Obi.
His claim was, however, denied by sources at the House who said the legislature has not received any response from the governor.