Posted by By JAMES OJO and BLESSING ONWUZO, Abuja on
The House of Representatives on Thursday deferred the passage of the 2008 Appropriation Bill over inconclusive investigations into the unspent N300billion not captured in the budget.
The House of Representatives on Thursday deferred the passage of the 2008 Appropriation Bill over inconclusive investigations into the unspent N300billion not captured in the budget.
Members, were, however, agreed that the investigation paid off as the National Assembly recovered 'over N300 billion" of unspent funds from ministries, departments and agencies.
Deputy Speaker, Hon Usman Bayero Nafada, said that the recovery was made by the finance committees of both the Senate and the House during their meetings with officials of the Ministry of Finance.
According to him, the sum of N217billion, including the N7billion earlier returned to the treasury by the National Assembly, came from the unspent funds allocated to various capital projects in the 2007 budget.
From the 16 dedicated accounts created by the executive, the deputy speaker told the House that between 'N70billion and N80billion" was recovered by the committees, while the sum of $657million was found in the Signature Bonus Account.
Nafada, who advised members to speed up deliberations in order to pass the budget in time, added that the recovered funds would now be captured in the budget.
Out of the money recovered from the signature bonus, the Petroleum Technology Development Fund will get $100, as the bulk of the money is earmarked for projects in the oil and gas sub-sectors of the economy.
The House had earlier scheduled to receive a report from its appropriation committee, following which members would deliberate on it and pass the budget, but when the chairman of the committee, Hon Festus Adegoke, took the floor, he complained that the executive had not helped with relevant data.
For instance, he said that there was the need to 'roll over" all the unspent funds earmarked for projects in 2007 to 2008 so that 'such projects are not abandoned and their funding properly monitored."
He said that the issue of benchmark for the budget had not been decided by the legislature and the executive, adding, 'it is hoped that we will soon get over these problems, which ought to be solved if the budget is to be meaningful and reflect our economic realities."
The implication, according to him, was that the committee would need more time to receive the revised revenue profile; disclosure of all special accounts and report of unspent/unreleased capital funds for 2007 before the budget could be presented to the House for ratification and passage.
Meanwhile, former speaker, Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, has advised against stampeding the committee into submitting the budget for passage, noting that the constitution allowed the president to spend money pending the passage of the Appropriation Bill into law.
She was supported by the chairman, House Committee on Education, Hon Farouk Lawal, who observed that the 'efforts" of the House had paid off, considering the funds already recovered, insisting that the investigations had proved that the executive was to blame for the delays in the passage of previous budgets and not the National Assembly.
He, however, commended President Umaru Yar'Adua for cooperating with the legislature and directing that all accounts be disclosed.
In his reaction, Speaker Dimeji Bankole, thanked the finance committee for the recoveries, stating that eight years ago N300billion was the size of the national budget.
He also commended the executive for coming up with all the figures, saying that it symbolized good working relationship between the legislature and the executive, a development he prayed should be sustained.